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In calculus, a branch of mathematics, the third derivative or third-order derivative is the rate at which the second derivative, or the rate of change of the rate of change, is changing. The third derivative of a function y = f ( x ) {\displaystyle y=f(x)} can be denoted by
The complex-step derivative formula is only valid for calculating first-order derivatives. A generalization of the above for calculating derivatives of any order employs multicomplex numbers , resulting in multicomplex derivatives.
For arbitrary stencil points and any derivative of order < up to one less than the number of stencil points, the finite difference coefficients can be obtained by solving the linear equations [6] ( s 1 0 ⋯ s N 0 ⋮ ⋱ ⋮ s 1 N − 1 ⋯ s N N − 1 ) ( a 1 ⋮ a N ) = d !
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:
For example, consider the ordinary differential equation ′ = + The Euler method for solving this equation uses the finite difference quotient (+) ′ to approximate the differential equation by first substituting it for u'(x) then applying a little algebra (multiplying both sides by h, and then adding u(x) to both sides) to get (+) + (() +).
Single-step methods (such as Euler's method) refer to only one previous point and its derivative to determine the current value. Methods such as Runge–Kutta take some intermediate steps (for example, a half-step) to obtain a higher order method, but then discard all previous information before taking a second step. Multistep methods attempt ...
for the first derivative, for the second derivative, for the third derivative, and for the nth derivative. When f is a function of several variables, it is common to use "∂", a stylized cursive lower-case d, rather than "D". As above, the subscripts denote the derivatives that are being taken.
An illustration of the five-point stencil in one and two dimensions (top, and bottom, respectively). In numerical analysis, given a square grid in one or two dimensions, the five-point stencil of a point in the grid is a stencil made up of the point itself together with its four "neighbors".