Notational confusion of multivariable derivatives

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Revision as of 07:25, 16 July 2018 by IssaRice (talk | contribs)

I think there's several different confusions that arise from multivariable derivative notation:

  • The thing where wt can mean two different things on LHS and RHS when t is used as both an initial and intermediate variable. (See Folland for details.)
  • The thing where if f(x,y)=(x2,y2) then fx(x,x) feels like it might be (2x,2x) even though it's actually (2x,0). (Example from Tao.) See also [1]
  • The thing where the total derivative for n=m=1 "should" be a function but people treat it as a number.

See also