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Derivative Notations Explained

Notations for derivatives include dy/dx, y', and Dyd/dx, all of which represent the derivative of y with respect to x. The notation specifies the independent variable only in the first case. Second derivatives are represented by d2y/dx2, y", and D2y/dx2. Higher derivatives are written as dn/dxn, yn, and Dny/dxn, where n indicates the nth derivative. The notation x is usually used to represent the derivative when time t is the independent variable.

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104 views2 pages

Derivative Notations Explained

Notations for derivatives include dy/dx, y', and Dyd/dx, all of which represent the derivative of y with respect to x. The notation specifies the independent variable only in the first case. Second derivatives are represented by d2y/dx2, y", and D2y/dx2. Higher derivatives are written as dn/dxn, yn, and Dny/dxn, where n indicates the nth derivative. The notation x is usually used to represent the derivative when time t is the independent variable.

Uploaded by

Bhanu Pratap Rathore
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Notations for Derivatives

dy , y and Dy dx to all mean the derivative of y with respect to x. Only the rst one species the independent variable x. In the other two you can only determine the independent variable from context. When the independent variable is time t we will usually adopt the . physicists notation x for the derivative. For second derivatives we have d2 y = y = D2 y dx2 all mean the second derivative of y with respect to x. If x = x (t) is a func.. tion of time we will also write x. For higher derivatives we will use the notations dn y = y(n) = D n y dx n to mean the nth derivative. We will write

MIT OpenCourseWare [Link]

Fall 2011

18.03SC Differential Equations

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