Question

Could someone please explain partial derivatives to me?

Answer 1

do you have an example of a problem?

Answer 2

http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/Classes/CalcIII/PartialDerivatives.aspx
have you checked out this link?

Answer 3

Welcome to Openstudy :) It helps to answer someone when they are trying to help you.

Answer 4

no i have an upcoming test and i cant do harder problems with out partial derivatives to build off of

Answer 5

Is this cal III?

Answer 6

and yes im reading that link now

Answer 7

yes

Answer 8

any website that is good for practice?

Answer 9

have you tried www.khanacademy.com or it is .org
Let me go check it

Answer 10

no ive never heard of it but ill try it

Answer 11

http://www.khanacademy.org/
ok he has 2 videos on partial derivatives
if you log into the website using facebook or google, you can get into his practice problems. His site is designed to give you problems on a concept until you get 10 correct in a row. I have done some of the problems in khan but not on that level.
It is a very nice site, try it out.. Good luck :)

Answer 12

@TuringTest Can you help on this one?

Answer 13

thank u

Answer 14

anytime :)

Answer 15

partial derivatives are just like regular derivatives, but you treat the variable(s) you are not taking the derivative with respect to as constant

Answer 16

for example\[f(x,y)=x^2+2xy^2\]say we want the partial with respect to x\[\frac{\partial }{\partial x}f(x,y)=2x+2xy^2\]notice that we just pretended that y was a constant, like 7 or whatever
then we just took the derivative with respect to x normally

guess what's going to happen with the partial wrt y ?

Answer 17

\[\frac{\partial}{\partial y}f(x,y)=4xy\]again, the x (and therefor x^2 as well) are treated like constants, which drop out when we take the derivative with respect to another variable.

Answer 18

...well, the x^2 drops out I mean
you should see what I mean by the fact that the variables we are not taking the derivative with respect to are acting like constants

Answer 19

for more info:
http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/Classes/CalcIII/PartialDerivatives.aspx

Answer 20

typo above\[\frac{\partial}{\partial x}f(x,y)=2x+2y^2\]my bad... I left an extra x in there