Gradient Discussion, 6/23/08

The function f ( x, y ) = 2 xy 3 has a gradient

f = 2 y 3 , 6 xy 2
The direction of maximum rate of change is (after some simplification)
v f
u=
=
f

y
y 2 + 9x 2

3x
y 2 + 9x2

At the point (2,0) we found that the direction of maximum rate of change will be 0,1 but that the
v
actual slope will be 0 (because f evaluated at (2,0) gives 0,0 which when gives f u = 0 ). This
seemed a bit counter-intuitive how can the maximum rate of change be 0? It turns out not to be so
peculiar after all.
The graph of this function is:

Note that along the x and y axes, the z-values are zero. In this case, the point (2,0) sits on the x-axis. If
we make a cross-section along the line x = 2 we get a cubic function z = 4 y 3 . Single-variable calculus
shows that the instantaneous rate of change when y = 0 is zero as well: z = 12 y 2 , so z (0) = 0 ).

It turns out that the derivative of this surface at the point (2,0) is zero in all directions! So the direction
of maximum increase is still true: it is 0,1 , which points into quadrant 3 where the surface does
actually get larger. But at the point (2,0) , the instantaneous rate of change is still zero.
In fact, for all points on the x-axis, this will be the case.
Another way to consider this problem: find a vector normal to this plane. We know this will be in general

v
n = f x , f y ,1
So for the function f ( x, y ) = 2 xy 3 , the normals are

v
n = 2 y 3 , 6 xy 2 ,1 .
v
Whenever a point is chosen on the x-axis, meaning y = 0 , we get a normal vector n = 0,0, 1 , which is a
unit vector in the z-direction (the fact that it points down in this case is not relevant). Therefore, any
tangent plane to a point on the surface confined to the x-axis will have a tangent plane of z = 0 , which has
zero slope in all x and y directions.