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Key concepts

  • A partial derivative is a derivative involving a function of more than one independent variable.
  • To calculate a partial derivative with respect to a given variable, treat all the other variables as constants and use the usual differentiation rules.
  • Higher-order partial derivatives can be calculated in the same way as higher-order derivatives.

Key equations

  • Partial derivative of f with respect to x
    f x = lim h 0 f ( x + h , y ) f ( x , y ) h
  • Partial derivative of f with respect to y
    f y = lim k 0 f ( x , y + k ) f ( x , y ) k

For the following exercises, calculate the partial derivative using the limit definitions only.

z x for z = x 2 3 x y + y 2

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z y for z = x 2 3 x y + y 2

z y = −3 x + 2 y

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For the following exercises, calculate the sign of the partial derivative using the graph of the surface.

A partial paraboloid with vertex at the origin and pointing up.

f x ( −1 , 1 )

The sign is negative.

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f x ( 0 , 0 )

The partial derivative is zero at the origin.

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For the following exercises, calculate the partial derivatives.

z x for z = sin ( 3 x ) cos ( 3 y )

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z y for z = sin ( 3 x ) cos ( 3 y )

z y = −3 sin ( 3 x ) sin ( 3 y )

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z x and z y for z = x 8 e 3 y

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z x and z y for z = ln ( x 6 + y 4 )

z x = 6 x 5 x 6 + y 4 ; z y = 4 y 3 x 6 + y 4

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Find f y ( x , y ) for f ( x , y ) = e x y cos ( x ) sin ( y ) .

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Let z = e x y . Find z x and z y .

z x = y e x y ; z y = x e x y

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Let z = ln ( x y ) . Find z x and z y .

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Let z = tan ( 2 x y ) . Find z x and z y .

z x = 2 sec 2 ( 2 x y ) , z y = sec 2 ( 2 x y )

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Let z = sinh ( 2 x + 3 y ) . Find z x and z y .

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Let f ( x , y ) = arctan ( y x ) . Evaluate f x ( 2 , −2 ) and f y ( 2 , −2 ) .

f x ( 2 , −2 ) = 1 4 = f y ( 2 , −2 )

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Let f ( x , y ) = x y x y . Find f x ( 2 , −2 ) and f y ( 2 , −2 ) .

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Evaluate the partial derivatives at point P ( 0 , 1 ) .

Find z x at ( 0 , 1 ) for z = e x cos ( y ) .

z x = cos ( 1 )

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Given f ( x , y , z ) = x 3 y z 2 , find 2 f x y and f z ( 1 , 1 , 1 ) .

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Given f ( x , y , z ) = 2 sin ( x + y ) , find f x ( 0 , π 2 , −4 ) , f y ( 0 , π 2 , −4 ) , and f z ( 0 , π 2 , −4 ) .

f x = 0 , f y = 0 , f z = 0

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The area of a parallelogram with adjacent side lengths that are a and b , and in which the angle between these two sides is θ , is given by the function A ( a , b , θ ) = b a sin ( θ ) . Find the rate of change of the area of the parallelogram with respect to the following:

  1. Side a
  2. Side b
  3. Angle θ
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Express the volume of a right circular cylinder as a function of two variables:

  1. its radius r and its height h .
  2. Show that the rate of change of the volume of the cylinder with respect to its radius is the product of its circumference multiplied by its height.
  3. Show that the rate of change of the volume of the cylinder with respect to its height is equal to the area of the circular base.

a. V ( r , h ) = π r 2 h b. V r = 2 π r h c. V h = π r 2

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Calculate w z for w = z sin ( x y 2 + 2 z ) .

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Find the indicated higher-order partial derivatives.

f x y for z = ln ( x y )

f x y = 1 ( x y ) 2

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f y x for z = ln ( x y )

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Let z = x 2 + 3 x y + 2 y 2 . Find 2 z x 2 and 2 z y 2 .

2 z x 2 = 2 , 2 z y 2 = 4

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Given z = e x tan y , find 2 z x y and 2 z y x .

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Given f ( x , y , z ) = x y z , find f x y y , f y x y , and f y y x .

f x y y = f y x y = f y y x = 0

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Given f ( x , y , z ) = e −2 x sin ( z 2 y ) , show that f x y y = f y x y .

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Show that z = 1 2 ( e y e y ) sin x is a solution of the differential equation 2 z x 2 + 2 z y 2 = 0 .

d 2 z d x 2 = 1 2 ( e y e y ) sin x d 2 z d y 2 = 1 2 ( e y e y ) sin x d 2 z d x 2 + d 2 z d y 2 = 0

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Find f x x ( x , y ) for f ( x , y ) = 4 x 2 y + y 2 2 x .

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Let f ( x , y , z ) = x 2 y 3 z 3 x y 2 z 3 + 5 x 2 z y 3 z . Find f x y z .

f x y z = 6 y 2 x 18 y z 2

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Let F ( x , y , z ) = x 3 y z 2 2 x 2 y z + 3 x z 2 y 3 z . Find F x y z .

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Given f ( x , y ) = x 2 + x 3 x y + y 3 5 , find all points at which f x = f y = 0 simultaneously.

( 1 4 , 1 2 ) , ( 1 , 1 )

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Given f ( x , y ) = 2 x 2 + 2 x y + y 2 + 2 x 3 , find all points at which f x = 0 and f y = 0 simultaneously.

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Given f ( x , y ) = y 3 3 y x 2 3 y 2 3 x 2 + 1 , find all points on f at which f x = f y = 0 simultaneously.

( 0 , 0 ) , ( 0 , 2 ) , ( 3 , −1 ) , ( 3 , −1 )

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Given f ( x , y ) = 15 x 3 3 x y + 15 y 3 , find all points at which f x ( x , y ) = f y ( x , y ) = 0 simultaneously.

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Show that z = e x sin y satisfies the equation 2 z x 2 + 2 z y 2 = 0 .

2 z x 2 + 2 z y 2 = e x sin ( y ) e x sin y = 0

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Show that f ( x , y ) = ln ( x 2 + y 2 ) solves Laplace’s equation 2 z x 2 + 2 z y 2 = 0 .

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Show that z = e t cos ( x c ) satisfies the heat equation z t = e t cos ( x c ) .

c 2 2 z x 2 = e t cos ( x c )

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Find lim Δ x 0 f ( x + Δ x ) f ( x , y ) Δ x for f ( x , y ) = −7 x 2 x y + 7 y .

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Find lim Δ y 0 f ( x , y + Δ y ) f ( x , y ) Δ y for f ( x , y ) = −7 x 2 x y + 7 y .

f y = −2 x + 7

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Find lim Δ x 0 Δ f Δ x = lim Δ x 0 f ( x + Δ x , y ) f ( x , y ) Δ x for f ( x , y ) = x 2 y 2 + x y + y .

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Find lim Δ x 0 Δ f Δ x = lim Δ x 0 f ( x + Δ x , y ) f ( x , y ) Δ x for f ( x , y ) = sin ( x y ) .

f x = y cos x y

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The function P ( T , V ) = n R T V gives the pressure at a point in a gas as a function of temperature T and volume V . The letters n and R are constants. Find P V and P T , and explain what these quantities represent.

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The equation for heat flow in the x y -plane is f t = 2 f x 2 + 2 f y 2 . Show that f ( x , y , t ) = e −2 t sin x sin y is a solution.

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The basic wave equation is f t t = f x x . Verify that f ( x , t ) = sin ( x + t ) and f ( x , t ) = sin ( x t ) are solutions.

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The law of cosines can be thought of as a function of three variables. Let x , y , and θ be two sides of any triangle where the angle θ is the included angle between the two sides. Then, F ( x , y , θ ) = x 2 + y 2 2 x y cos θ gives the square of the third side of the triangle. Find F θ and F x when x = 2 , y = 3 , and θ = π 6 .

F θ = 6 , F x = 4 3 3

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Suppose the sides of a rectangle are changing with respect to time. The first side is changing at a rate of 2 in./sec whereas the second side is changing at the rate of 4 in/sec. How fast is the diagonal of the rectangle changing when the first side measures 16 in. and the second side measures 20 in.? (Round answer to three decimal places.)

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A Cobb-Douglas production function is f ( x , y ) = 200 x 0.7 y 0.3 , where x and y represent the amount of labor and capital available. Let x = 500 and y = 1000 . Find δ f δ x and δ f δ y at these values, which represent the marginal productivity of labor and capital, respectively.

δ f δ x at ( 500 , 1000 ) = 172.36 , δ f δ y at ( 500 , 1000 ) = 36.93

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The apparent temperature index is a measure of how the temperature feels, and it is based on two variables: h , which is relative humidity, and t , which is the air temperature.

A = 0.885 t 22.4 h + 1.20 t h 0.544 . Find A t and A h when t = 20 ° F and h = 0.90 .

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Practice Key Terms 4

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Source:  OpenStax, Calculus volume 3. OpenStax CNX. Feb 05, 2016 Download for free at http://legacy.cnx.org/content/col11966/1.2
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