MAT3010 Problem Set 4: Suggested Solutions

Bin Liu

October 10, 2021

1. Answer: (1) @z=@x = 2x; @z=@y = 2e2y . (2) @z=@x = y=x; @z=@y = ln x. (3) @z=@x Pn =
y 2 yexy ; @z=@y = 2xy xexy . (4) @z=@x = yxy 1 , @z=@y = xy ln x. (5) @z=@xi = 1= i=1 xi .
z
(6). @u=@x = 3yz + 2xy z 3 , @u=@y = 3xz + x2 , @u=@z = 3xy 3xz 2 . (7) @u=@x = y z xy 1 ,
z z
@u=@y = xy zy z 1 ln x, @u=@z = xy y z ln x ln y:
2. Easy and omitted.
3. Answer: When y 6= 0, by de…nition,
xy(x2 y 2 )
f (x; y) f (0; y) x2 +y 2 0 y(x2 y 2 )
f10 (0; y) = lim = lim = lim = y:
x!0 x x!0 x x!0 x2 + y 2

When y = 0,
f (x; 0) f (0; 0) 0 0
f10 (0; 0) = lim = lim = 0:
x!0 x x!0 x
Therefore, f10 (0; y) = y for all y.
Likewise, when x 6= 0,
xy(x2 y 2 )
f (x; y) f (x; 0) x2 +y 2 0 x(x2 y 2 )
f20 (x; 0) = lim = lim = lim = x:
y!0 y y!0 y y!0 x2 + y 2

When x = 0,
f (0; y) f (0; 0) 0 0
f20 (0; 0) = lim = lim = 0:
y!0 y y!0 y
Therefore, f20 (x; 0) = x for all x.

Notice that f10 (0; y) is a di¤erentiable (single-variable) function of y, whose derivative is 1 for
00 00
all y, which means f12 (0; y) = 1 for all y. Thus, f12 (0; 0) = 1. [You may also just apply the
de…nition of derivatives to obtain this.

00 f10 (0; y) f10 (0; 0) y 0

f12 (0; 0) = lim = lim = 1:
y!0 y y!0 y
00 00
] Similarly, f21 (x; 0) = 1 for all x, so that f21 (0; 0) = 1.
00 00
Notice that for this function, f12 (0; 0) 6= f21 (0; 0). Then it must be the case that at least one of
00 00
f12 (x; y) and f21 (x; y) is not continuous at (0; 0); otherwise, Young’s theorem is contradicted. In
fact, when (x; y) 6= (0; 0),
y(x4 + 4x2 y 2 y 4 )
f10 (x; y) = ;
(x2 + y 2 )2

1
 00 x6 + 9x4 y 2 9x2 y 4 y6
f12 (x; y) = :
(x2 + y 2 )3
00 00
We show that f12 (x; y) is not continuous at (0; 0). To see this, notice that f12 (x; 0) = 1 for all
00
x 6= 0, and f12 (0; y) = 1 for all y 6= 0. Thus, when (x; y) tends to (0; 0) along the x-axis, the limit
00
is 1; when (x; y) tends to (0; 0) along the y-axis, the limit is 1. Therefore, lim f12 (x; y) does
(x;y)!(0;0)
not exist! Not to mention its continuity.

4. Answer: (a) Proof: Our goal is to show that for any (x0 ; y0 ) 2 R2 , there are constants 1 and 2
such that
jf (x0 + h1 ; y0 + h2 ) f (x0 ; y0 ) 1 h1 2 h2 j
lim p = 0; (1)
(h1 ;h2 )!(0;0) 2
h1 + h22

where h = (h1 ; h2 ). [Now think in the following way: If f is di¤erentiable, then it must be the
case that 1 = f10 (x0 ; y0 ) = y0 , and 2 = f20 (x0 ; y0 ) = x0 .] Set 1 = y0 and 2 = x0 , both of which
are constants. Then

jf (x0 + h1 ; y0 + h2 ) f (x0 ; y0 ) 1 h1 2 h2 j = jh1 h2 j:

Therefore, to show (1), it su¢ ces to show that

jh h j
lim p 1 2 = 0:
(h1 ;h2 )!(0;0) h21 + h22

This is obvious, because when (h1 ; h2 ) 6= (0; 0),

p
jh h j h21 + h22
0 p 1 2 ;
h21 + h22 2

so that p
jh h j h21 + h22
0 lim p 1 2 lim = 0:
(h1 ;h2 )!(0;0) h21 + h22 (h1 ;h2 )!(0;0) 2
This completes the proof.
(b) Proof: By the de…nition of di¤erentiability, since f is di¤erentiable at x0 , there exist constants
1 ; : : : ; n , such that Pn
jf (x0 +h) f (x0 ) i=1 i hi j
lim = 0; (2)
h!0 jjhjj
where h = (h1 ; : : : ; hn ). [Think in the following way: For directional derivatives, the vector takes
a special form: ta, where t is a real number and a is a direction (i.e., jjajj = 1). Note that the
de…nition of di¤erentiability applies to any kind of vectors h. In particular, it applies to ta. This
leads us to think about taking a special vector form in the de…nition of di¤erentiability.]
Now assume that a = (a1 ; : : : ; an ) is a direction (i.e., jjajj = 1), and recall that the directional
derivative of f at x0 in the direction of a is de…ned as

f (x0 + ta) f (x0 )

lim : (3)
t!0 t
What we need to do is to show that the above limit exists and is …nite. To this end, notice that
(2) implies that Pn
f (x0 +h) f (x0 ) i=1 i hi
lim = 0: (4)
h!0 jjhjj

2
Now when t ! 0, ta ! 0. Thus, setting h = ta and using (4) leads to
Pn
f (x0 +ta) f (x0 ) i=1 i tai
lim = 0:
t!0 jjtajj

Thus,
Pn Pn
f (x0 +ta) f (x0 ) i=1 i tai f (x0 +ta) f (x0 ) i=1 i tai
lim = lim = 0:
t!0 jjtajj t!0 jtj

And then,
Pn Pn
f (x0 +ta) f (x0 ) i=1 i tai f (x0 +ta) f (x0 ) i=1 i tai
lim = 0 ) lim =0
t!0 jtj t!0 t
n
X n
X
f (x0 +ta) f (x0 ) f (x0 +ta) f (x0 )
) lim i ai = 0 ) lim = i ai :
t!0 t i=1
t!0 t i=1

This just means that the limit de…ned in (3)

n
X
f (x0 + ta) f (x0 )
lim = i ai ; (5)
t!0 t i=1

which implies that it exists and is …nite. Therefore, all the directional derivatives exist. To see the
formula that fa0 (x0 ) = rf (x0 ) a, just notice that by taking a = (0; : : : ; 0; 1 ; 0; : : : ; 0) in (5)— i.e.,
ith
ai = 1— one is easy to get that i = fi0 (x0 ). The formula that fa0 (x0 ) = rf (x0 ) a then follows.
The proof completes.