LESSON 11: PARTIAL DERIVATIVES

AND PARTIAL DIFFERENTIATION

Partial Derivatives of a Function of Two Variables
In applications of functions of several variables, the question often
arises, “How will the value of a function be affected by a change in
one of its independent variables?” You can answer this by
considering the independent one at a time. For example, to
determine the effect of a catalyst in an experiment, a chemist could
conduct the experiment several times using varying amounts of the
catalyst, while keeping constant other variables such as temperature
and pressure. You can use a similar procedure to determine the rate
of change of a function f with respect to one of its several
independent variables. This process is called partial differentiation,
and the result is referred to as the partial derivative of f with
respect to the chosen independent variable.
 
DEFINITION OF PARTIAL DERIVATIVES OF A FUNCTION OF TWO VARIABLES
If then the first partial derivatives of with respect to and are the functions and
defined by

provided the limit exist.

This definition indicates that if then to find you consider constant and differentiate
with respect to Similarly, to find you consider constant and differentiate with respect
to

 EXAMPLE 1: (p.908)
Find the partial derivatives and for the function
SOLUTION:
Considering y to be constant and differentiating with respect to x produces

Considering x to be constant and differentiating with respect to y produces

 
NOTATION FOR FIRST PARTIAL DERIVATIVES
For the partial derivatives and are denoted by

and

The first partials evaluated at the point are denoted by

and

 
EXAMPLE 2: (p.909)
For find and and evaluate each at the point
SOLUTION:
Because

the partial derivative of with respect to at is

Because
the partial derivative of with respect to at
 
EXAMPLE 3: (p.910)
Find the slopes in the -direction and in the -direction of the surface given by
at the point .
SOLUTION:
The partial derivatives of with respect to and are
and
So in the -direction , the slope is and
in the -direction , the slope is

EXAMPLE 4: (p.910)
Find the slopes of the surface given by at the point in the -direction and in the -direction
SOLUTION:
The partial derivatives of with respect to and are
and
So, at the point , the slopes in the - and -directions are
and
 
EXAMPLE 5: (p.911)
The area of a parallelogram with adjacent sides and and included angle is ,given by
a. Find the rate of change A with respect to for
b. Find the rate of change A with respect to for
SOLUTION:
b. To find the rate of change of the area with respect to , hold and constant and differentiate
with respect to to obtain

b. To find the rate of change of the area with respect to , hold and constant and differentiate
with respect to to obtain
 
Partial Derivatives of a Function of Three or More Variables
The concept of a partial derivative can be extended naturally to functions of three or more
variables. For instance, if , there are three partial derivatives, each of which is formed by holding
two of the variables constant. That is, to define the partial derivative of with respect to , consider
and to be constant and differentiate with respect to . A similar process is used to find the
derivatives of respect to and with respect to .

In general, if , there are partial derivatives denoted by

To find the partial derivative with respect to one of the variables, hold the other variables constant
and differentiate with respect to the given variable.
 
EXAMPLE 6: (p.912)
a. To find the partial derivative of with respect to consider and to be constant and obtain

b. To find the partial derivative of with respect to , consider and to be constant and obtain.
Then, using the Product Rule, you obtain

c. To find the derivative of with respect to consider and to be constant and obtain

 Higher-Order Partial Derivatives

As is true for ordinary derivatives, it is possible to take second, third, and higher-order partial
derivatives of a function of several variables, provided such derivatives exist. Higher-order
derivatives are denoted by the order in which the differentiation occurs. For instance, the function
has the following second partial derivatives.
1. Differentiate twice with respect to :
 2. Differentiate twice with respect to :

3. Differentiate twice with respect to and then with respect to :

4. Differentiate twice with respect to and then with respect to :

The third and fourth cases are called mixed partial derivatives.

EXAMPLE 7: (p.913)
Find the second partial second derivatives , and determine the value of
SOLUTION:
Begin by finding the first partial derivatives with respect to and .
and
Then, differentiate each of these with respect to and .
and
and
At the value of is
Note: Notice in Example 7 that the two mixed partials are equal. If is a function of and such that
and are continuous on an open disk then, for every in
 EXAMPLE 8: (p.913)
Show that and for the function given by
SOLUTION:
First partials:

Second partials (note that the first are equal):

Third partials (note that all three are equal):

 Increments and Differentials

The concepts of increments and differentials are generalized to functions of two or more variables.
Recall that for the differential of was defined as . Similar terminology is used for a function of two
variables, That is, and are the increments of and , and the increment of is given by

 DEFINITION OF TOTAL DIFFERENTIAL

If and and are increments of and , then the differentials of the independent variables and are
and and the total differential of the dependent variable is
This definition can be extended to a function three or more variables. For instance, if then and
the total differential of is
 EXAMPLE 1: (p.918)
Find the total differential for each function.
a. b.
SOLUTION:
a. The total differential for is

b. The total differential for is

 
DEFINITION OF DIFFERENTIABILITY
A function given by is differentiable at if can be written in the form

Where both and as The function is differentiable in a region if it is differentiable at each point
in

 EXAMPLE 2: (p.919)
Show that the function given by is differentiable at every point in the plane.
SOLUTION: Letting the increment of at arbitrary point in the plane is

Where and Because and as it follows that

is differentiable at every point in the plane.
Chain Rules for Functions of Several Variables

 THEOREM: CHAIN RULE: ONE INDEPENDENT VARIABLE

Let where is a differentiable function and . If and where and are differentiable functions of
then is a differentiable function of , and

 EXAMPLE 1: (p.925)
Let where and . Find when
SOLUTION:

When it follows that

OR
 
EXAMPLE 2: (p.925)
Two objects are traveling in elliptical paths given by the following parametric equations
and
and
At what rate is the distance between the two objects changing when ?
SOLUTION: The distance between the two objects is given by
and that when and

When the partial derivatives of are as follows.

and
and
 
EXAMPLE 3: (p.927)
Find and for where and .
SOLUTION:

 
THEOREM: CHAIN RULE: TWO INDEPENDENT VARIABLES
Let where is a differentiable function of and . If and such that the first partials and all exist,
then and exist and are given by
and .
To obtain hold constant and apply Theorem on Chain Rule of one independent variable to obtain
the desired result. Similarly, for hold constant and apply the same Theorem.
 
EXAMPLE 4: (p.928)
Use the Chain Rule to find and for where and .
SOLUTION:

  is a differentiable function of the variables where each is a differentiable function of the

If
variables then for

You obtain the following.

 
EXAMPLE 5: (p.929)
Find and when and for the function given by
where and
SOLUTION:

When and , you have and

So,
Furthermore, and for and it follows that
 Extrema of Functions of Two Variables
In this section, the Extreme Value Theorem for a function of a single variable is extended to a
function of two variables.
Consider the continuous function of two variables, defined on a closed bounded region . The
values of and such that
(a, b) and (c, d) are in R
for all in are called the minimum and maximum of in the region . The Extreme Value Theorem
deals with a region in the plane that is both closed and bounded. A region in the plane is called
bounded if it is a subregion of a closed disk in the plane.

 
THEOREM: EXTREME VALUE THEOREM
Let be a continuous function of two variables and defined on a closed bounded region R in the
-plane.
1. There is at least one point in R at which takes on a minimum value.
2. There is at least one point in R at which takes on a maximum value.

Note: A minimum is also called an absolute minimum and a maximum is also called an absolute
maximum. As a single-variable calculus, there is a distinction made between absolute extrema and
relative extrema
 DEFINITION OF RELATIVE EXTREMA
Let be a continuous function defined on a region R containing
1. The function has a relative minimum at , if , for all in an open disk containing .
2. The function has a relative maximum at , if , for all in an open disk containing .

Note: has a relative maximum at means that the point is at least as high as all nearby points on
the graph Similarly, has a relative minimum at if is at least as low as all nearby points on the
graph.

 
DEFINITION OF CRITICAL POINT
Let be defined on an open region R containing The point is a critical point of if one of the
following is true.
1. and .
2. or does not exist.

 
THEOREM: RELATIVE EXTREMA OCCUR ONLY AT CRITICAL POINTS
If has a relative extremum at on an open region R, then is a critical point of .
 
EXAMPLE 1: (p.956)
Determine the relative extrema of
SOLUTION: Begin by finding the critical points of . Because
and
are defined for all and the only critical points are those for which both first partial derivatives are
0. To locate these points, set and equal to 0, and solve the equations
and
to obtain the critical point . By completing the square, you can conclude that for all

So, a relative minimum of occurs at . The value of the relative is .

EXAMPLE 2: (p.956)
Determine the relative extrema of
SOLUTION:
and
Both partial derivatives exist for all points -plane except . Moreover, because the partial derivatives
cannot be both 0 unless both and are 0, you can conclude that is the only critical point. For all
other it is clear that

So, has a relative maximum at .

Note: In Example 2, for every point on the -axis other than . However, because is nonzero, these are not critical
points. Remember that one of the partials must not exist or both must be 0 in order to yield a critical point.
 THEOREM: SECOND PARTIALS TEST
Let have continuous second partial derivatives on an open region containing a point for which
and
To test for relative extrema of , consider the quantity

1. If and then has a relative minimum at .

2. If and then has a relative maximum at .
3. If , then is a saddle point.
4. The test is inconclusive if

Note: If then and must have the same sign. This means that can be replaced by in the first two
parts of the test.

 A convenient device for remembering the formula for in the Second Partials Test is given by 2 x 2
determinant

Where by Equality of Mixed Partial Derivatives Theorem.

 
EXAMPLE 3: (p.958)
Find the relative extrema of
SOLUTION:
and
and

and and
It follows that, for the critical point

and, by the Second Partials Test, you can conclude that is a saddle point of . Furthermore, for the
critical point ,

And because you can conclude that has a relative maximum at .

The Second Partials Test can fail to find relative extrema in two ways. If either of the first partial
derivatives does not exist, you cannot use the test. Also, if

the test fails, in such cases, you can try a sketch or some other approach.
 
EXAMPLE 4: (p.958)
Find the relative extrema of
SOLUTION:
and
and

That is, every point along - or -axis is a critical point. Moreover, because
and and
you know that if either or , then

The Second Partials Test fails. However, because for every point along the - or -axis and for all
other points, you can conclude that each of these critical points yields an absolute minimum.
 
EXAMPLE 5: (p.959)
Find the absolute extrema of on the closed region given by and
.
SOLUTION: From the partial derivatives
and
you can see that each point lying on the hyperbola given is a critical point. These points each yield
the value

which you know is the absolute maximum. The only other critical point of is . It yields an absolute
minimum of 0, because

implies that

To locate other extrema, you should consider the four boundaries of the region formed by taking
traces with the vertical planes and In doing this, you will find that at all points on the -axis, at all
points on the -axis, and at the point Each of these points yields an absolute minimum for the
surface.
 
Applications of Extrema of Functions of Two Variables
EXAMPLE 1: (p.962)
A rectangular box is resting on the -plane with one vertex at the origin. The opposite vertex lies in
the plane . Find the maximum volume of such a box.
SOLUTION:
Let and represent the length, width and height of the box. Because one vertex of the box lies in
the plane , you know that and you can write the volume of the box as a function of two variables.

you obtain the critical points and At the volume is 0, so that point does not yield a maximum
volume. At the point you can apply the Second Partials Test.
, ,
Because
and

So, from the Second Partials Test the maximum volume is

cubic units
 
EXAMPLE 2: (p.963)
An electronics manufacturer determines that the profit P (in dollars) obtained by producing and
selling units of a DVD player and units of DVD recorder is approximated by the model

Find the production level that produces a maximum profit. What is the maximum profit?
SOLUTION:

After simplifying, this system of linear equations can be written as

and
Solving this system produces and . The second partial derivatives of are
, and

Because and

you can conclude that the production level of units and units yields a maximum profit. The
maximum profit is

Note: In Example 2, it was assumed that the manufacturing plant is able to produce the required
number of units to yield a maximum profit. In actual practice, the production would be bounded
by physical constraints.