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[5] [6] 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. [9]
The difference quotient of the difference quotient is called the second difference quotient and ... The difference (or the exterior derivative, ... Constant rule : If ...
The logarithmic derivative is another way of stating the rule for differentiating the logarithm of a function (using the chain rule): () ′ = ′, wherever is positive. Logarithmic differentiation is a technique which uses logarithms and its differentiation rules to simplify certain expressions before actually applying the derivative.
In calculus, the quotient rule is a method of finding the derivative of a function that is the ratio of two differentiable functions. Let () = (), where both f and g are differentiable and () The quotient rule states that the derivative of h(x) is
Therefore, the true derivative of f at x is the limit of the value of the difference quotient as the secant lines get closer and closer to being a tangent line: ′ = (+) (). Since immediately substituting 0 for h results in 0 0 {\displaystyle {\frac {0}{0}}} indeterminate form , calculating the derivative directly can be unintuitive.
In an analogous way, one can obtain finite difference approximations to higher order derivatives and differential operators. For example, by using the above central difference formula for f ′(x + h / 2 ) and f ′(x − h / 2 ) and applying a central difference formula for the derivative of f ′ at x, we obtain the central difference approximation of the second derivative of f:
These techniques include the chain rule, product rule, and quotient rule. Other functions cannot be differentiated at all, giving rise to the concept of differentiability . A closely related concept to the derivative of a function is its differential .
In principle, the derivative of a function can be computed from the definition by considering the difference quotient and computing its limit. Once the derivatives of a few simple functions are known, the derivatives of other functions are more easily computed using rules for