partial derivative
Noun
Meaning
the derivative of a function of two or more variables with respect to a single variable while the other variables are considered to be constant
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Examples
For example a societal consumption function may describe the amount spent on consumer goods as depending on both income and wealth; the marginal propensity to consume is then the partial derivative of the consumption function with respect to income.
By contrast, the total derivative of V with respect to r and h are respectively : and : The difference between the total and partial derivative is the elimination of indirect dependencies between variables in partial derivatives.
For the function the "own" second partial derivative with respect to x is simply the partial derivative of the partial derivative (both with respect to x): Chiang, Alpha C. Fundamental Methods of Mathematical Economics, McGraw-Hill, third edition, 1984.
Given a partial derivative, it allows for the partial recovery of the original function.
If f is a harmonic function on U, then all partial derivatives of f are also harmonic functions on U. The Laplace operator Δ and the partial derivative operator will commute on this class of functions.
In the case of the formal derivative, there are now separate partial derivative operators, which differentiate with respect to each of the indeterminates.