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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 mathematics, differential calculus is a subfield of calculus that studies the ... Differentiating a function using the above definition is known as differentiation ...
A differentiable function is smooth (the function is locally well approximated as a linear function at each interior point) and does not contain any break, angle, or cusp. If x 0 is an interior point in the domain of a function f , then f is said to be differentiable at x 0 if the derivative f ′ ( x 0 ) {\displaystyle f'(x_{0})} exists.
Differential calculus is the study of the definition, properties, and applications of the derivative of a function. The process of finding the derivative is called differentiation. Given a function and a point in the domain, the derivative at that point is a way of encoding the small-scale behavior of the function near that point.
In mathematics, a derivation is a function on an algebra that generalizes certain features of the derivative operator. Specifically, given an algebra A over a ring or a field K, a K-derivation is a K-linear map D : A → A that satisfies Leibniz's law:
In mathematics, a differential equation is an equation that relates one or more unknown functions and their derivatives. [1] In applications, the functions generally represent physical quantities, the derivatives represent their rates of change, and the differential equation defines a relationship between the two.
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.