1 Derivatives

For a function y = f (x), the derivative dfdx

(x)
tells how and how fast y changes
with a very small change of x (a marginal change of x; a one-unit change of x).
Graphically, it represents the slope of the function. The derivative of f (x) at
x = a is

df (x) f (a + x) f (a)
jx=a = lim :
dx x!0 x

1.1 Rules for calculating derivatives

Perlo¤ (A.3, p.717-718)

1.2 Partial derivatives

For a function of several variables, such as, y = f (x1 ; x2 ), the partial derivative
of y = f (x1 ; x2 ; ) with respect to x1 , denoted by @f (x@x1 ;x
1
2 ;)
, represents how the
function value varies with a marginal change of x1 , while holding the other
variables (x2 in this function) constant. To calculate @f (x@x1 ;x 1
2 ;)
, just pretend
that x2 is constant and compute the ordinary derivative with respect to x1 .

dy df (x) dx
The chain rule says that given y = f (x (a)), we have da = dx da . For a
function y = f (x1 (a) ; x2 (a)), we have

dy @f (x1 ; x2 ; ) dx1 @f (x1 ; x2 ; ) dx2

= + :
da @x1 da @x2 da

1.3 Implicit function theorem

For any identity F (x; y) 0, we have Fx dx + Fy dy = 0, implying

dy Fx
= :
dx Fy