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The difference quotient is a measure of the average rate of change of the function over an interval (in this case, an interval of length h). [7] [8] : 237 [9] The limit of the difference quotient (i.e., the derivative) is thus the instantaneous rate of change.
This formula is known as the symmetric difference quotient. In this case the first-order errors cancel, so the slope of these secant lines differ from the slope of the tangent line by an amount that is approximately proportional to h 2 {\displaystyle h^{2}} .
A finite difference is a mathematical expression of the form f (x + b) − f (x + a).If a finite difference is divided by b − a, one gets a difference quotient.The approximation of derivatives by finite differences plays a central role in finite difference methods for the numerical solution of differential equations, especially boundary value problems.
Differentiation is linear. The product rule. The chain rule. The inverse function rule. Power laws, polynomials, quotients, and reciprocals. The polynomial or elementary power rule. The reciprocal rule. The quotient rule. Generalized power rule.
In calculus, the chain rule is a formula that expresses the derivative of the composition of two differentiable functions f and g in terms of the derivatives of f and g. More precisely, if is the function such that for every x, then the chain rule is, in Lagrange's notation , or, equivalently,
Discrete differential calculus is the study of the definition, properties, and applications of the difference quotient of a function. The process of finding the difference quotient is called differentiation. Given a function defined at several points of the real line, the difference quotient at that point is a way of encoding the small-scale (i ...
A common pitfall is using L'Hôpital's rule with some circular reasoning to compute a derivative via a difference quotient. For example, consider the task of proving the derivative formula for powers of x: (+) =.
The derivative is a fundamental tool of calculus that quantifies the sensitivity of change of a function 's output with respect to its input. The derivative of a function of a single variable at a chosen input value, when it exists, is the slope of the tangent line to the graph of the function at that point. The tangent line is the best linear ...