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In mathematics, differential calculus is a subfield of calculus that studies the rates at which quantities change. [1] It is one of the two traditional divisions of calculus, the other being integral calculus—the study of the area beneath a curve.
In mathematics, the derivative is a fundamental tool that quantifies the sensitivity to 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.
These rules are given in many books, both on elementary and advanced calculus, in pure and applied mathematics. Those in this article (in addition to the above references) can be found in: Mathematical Handbook of Formulas and Tables (3rd edition) , S. Lipschutz, M.R. Spiegel, J. Liu, Schaum's Outline Series, 2009, ISBN 978-0-07-154855-7 .
The differential was first introduced via an intuitive or heuristic definition by Isaac Newton and furthered by Gottfried Leibniz, who thought of the differential dy as an infinitely small (or infinitesimal) change in the value y of the function, corresponding to an infinitely small change dx in the function's argument x.
In mathematics, differential refers to several related notions [1] derived from the early days of calculus, put on a rigorous footing, such as infinitesimal differences and the derivatives of functions. [2] The term is used in various branches of mathematics such as calculus, differential geometry, algebraic geometry and algebraic topology.
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, ′ = ′ = (′) ′.
The origins of differentiation likewise predate the fundamental theorem of calculus by hundreds of years; for example, in the fourteenth century the notions of continuity of functions and motion were studied by the Oxford Calculators and other scholars. The historical relevance of the fundamental theorem of calculus is not the ability to ...
The proof of the general Leibniz rule [2]: 68–69 proceeds by induction. Let and be -times differentiable functions.The base case when = claims that: ′ = ′ + ′, which is the usual product rule and is known to be true.