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A differentiable function. In mathematics, a differentiable function of one real variable is a function whose derivative exists at each point in its domain.In other words, the graph of a differentiable function has a non-vertical tangent line at each interior point in its domain.
In calculus, the differential represents the principal part of the change in a function = with respect to changes in the independent variable. The differential is defined by = ′ (), where ′ is the derivative of f with respect to , and is an additional real variable (so that is a function of and ).
If the function is differentiable, the minima and maxima can only occur at critical points or endpoints. This also has applications in graph sketching: once the local minima and maxima of a differentiable function have been found, a rough plot of the graph can be obtained from the observation that it will be either increasing or decreasing ...
A function of a real variable is differentiable at a point of its domain, if its domain contains an open interval containing , and the limit = (+) exists. [2] This means that, for every positive real number , there exists a positive real number such that, for every such that | | < and then (+) is defined, and | (+) | <, where the vertical bars denote the absolute value.
The converse is not true for real functions; in fact, in a certain sense, the real analytic functions are sparse compared to all real infinitely differentiable functions. For the complex numbers, the converse does hold, and in fact any function differentiable once on an open set is analytic on that set (see "analyticity and differentiability ...
For functions of a single variable, the theorem states that if is a continuously differentiable function with nonzero derivative at the point ; then is injective (or bijective onto the image) in a neighborhood of , the inverse is continuously differentiable near = (), and the derivative of the inverse function at is the reciprocal of the derivative of at : ′ = ′ = ′ (()).
Notice how, for a differentiable function, critical point is the same as stationary point. Although it is easily visualized on the graph (which is a curve), the notion of critical point of a function must not be confused with the notion of critical point, in some direction, of a curve (see below for a detailed definition).
In calculus, the differential represents a change in the linearization of a function.. The total differential is its generalization for functions of multiple variables.; In traditional approaches to calculus, differentials (e.g. dx, dy, dt, etc.) are interpreted as infinitesimals.