Implicit Derivative using regular derivatives and partial derivatives

Today, I had a strange idea while doing implicit derivatives. Is there a way to find an implicit derivative using partial derivatives? I did some examples with functions and I studied the result with an exception but I'm struggling on the part where I want to prove that it woks for all kind of functions. Here's what I've come up with :

xy3+ysin⁡x=x2+cos⁡yx{y^3} + y\sin x = {x^2} + \cos y

With the regular implicit derivative I obtain :

dydx=2x−y3−ycos⁡x3xy2+sin⁡x+sin⁡y\frac{{dy}}{{dx}} = \frac{{2x - {y^3} - y\cos x}}{{3x{y^2} + \sin x + \sin y}}

With partial I decided to put z as a function of x and y then find the derivative with respect to both variables and then use an identity to get ∂y∂x\frac{{\partial y}}{{\partial x}}

z=x2+cos⁡y−xy3−ysin⁡x∂z∂y=−sin⁡y−3xy2−sin⁡x∂z∂x=2x−y3−ycos⁡x∂y∂x=∂y∂z∂z∂x∂y∂x=2x−y3−ycos⁡x−sin⁡y−3xy2−sin⁡x\begin{array}{l} z = {x^2} + \cos y - x{y^3} - y\sin x\\ \frac{{\partial z}}{{\partial y}} = - \sin y - 3x{y^2} - \sin x\\ \frac{{\partial z}}{{\partial x}} = 2x - {y^3} - y\cos x\\ \frac{{\partial y}}{{\partial x}} = \frac{{\partial y}}{{\partial z}}\frac{{\partial z}}{{\partial x}}\\ \frac{{\partial y}}{{\partial x}} = \frac{{2x - {y^3} - y\cos x}}{{ - \sin y - 3x{y^2} - \sin x}} \end{array}

Then I see that the only difference is a -1. I thought that maybe this is true:

−∂y∂x=dydx - \frac{{\partial y}}{{\partial x}} = \frac{{dy}}{{dx}}

For the method I used.For an equation of this type I found that it holds:

f(x)=g(y)df(x)dx=dydxdg(y)dydydx=dydf(x)dxdg(y)z=g(y)−f(x)∂z∂x=−df(x)dx∂z∂y=dg(y)dy∂y∂x=−dydf(x)dxdg(y)−∂y∂x=dydx\begin{array}{l} f(x) = g(y)\\ \frac{{df(x)}}{{dx}} = \frac{{dy}}{{dx}}\frac{{dg(y)}}{{dy}}\\ \frac{{dy}}{{dx}} = \frac{{dydf(x)}}{{dxdg(y)}}\\ z = g(y) - f(x)\\ \frac{{\partial z}}{{\partial x}} = - \frac{{df(x)}}{{dx}}\\ \frac{{\partial z}}{{\partial y}} = \frac{{dg(y)}}{{dy}}\\ \frac{{\partial y}}{{\partial x}} = - \frac{{dydf(x)}}{{dxdg(y)}}\\ - \frac{{\partial y}}{{\partial x}} = \frac{{dy}}{{dx}} \end{array}

I've never followed any courses on partial so maybe some operations I did in this are not correct. I would really like to know if it's true, and if not then maybe where did I go wrong.

#HelpMe! #Advice #Math #Opinions

Note by Samuel Hatin
7 years, 7 months ago

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Comments

Your problem lies with the line where you write ∂y∂x=∂y∂z ∂z∂x \frac{\partial y}{\partial x} = \frac{\partial y}{\partial z}\, \frac{\partial z}{\partial x} Once you have functions of more than one variable, the chain rule becomes more complicated.

For example, if we have z=z(x,y)z = z(x,y) and we can write x=x(u1,…,um)x = x(u_1,\ldots,u_m) and y=y(u1,…,um)y = y(u_1,\ldots,u_m) as functions of u1,…,umu_1,\ldots,u_m, then zz can be regarded as a function of u1,…,umu_1,\ldots,u_m. The chain rule tells us that ∂z∂uj=∂z∂x∂x∂uj+∂z∂y∂y∂uj \begin{array}{rcl} \frac{\partial z}{\partial u_j} & = & \frac{\partial z}{\partial x} \frac{\partial x}{\partial u_j} + \frac{\partial z}{\partial y} \frac{\partial y}{\partial u_j} \end{array} for any 1≤j≤m1 \le j \le m.

The m=1m=1 case of the chain rule works for you here. We are looking at an equation of the form z(x,y)  =  0 z(x,y) \; = \; 0 where yy is a function of xx. This means that zz can be regarded as a function of xx alone as well as a function of x,yx,y. Since x,yx,y are both functions of xx alone, partial derivatives can be replaced by ordinary derivatives (there are no other variables to keep constant!), and so ∂x∂x  =  dxdx  =  1∂y∂x  =  dydx \frac{\partial x}{\partial x} \; = \; \frac{d x}{d x} \; = \; 1 \qquad \frac{\partial y}{\partial x} \; = \; \frac{d y}{d x} The chain rule now tells us that 0  =  dzdx  =  ∂z∂x∂x∂x+∂z∂y∂y∂x  =  ∂z∂x+∂z∂ydydx(⋆) 0 \; = \; \frac{d z}{d x} \; = \; \frac{\partial z}{\partial x}\frac{\partial x}{\partial x} + \frac{\partial z}{\partial y}\frac{\partial y}{\partial x} \; = \; \frac{\partial z}{\partial x} + \frac{\partial z}{\partial y}\frac{d y}{d x} \qquad \qquad (\star) and hence we deduce that dydx  =  −∂z∂x(∂z∂y)−1 \frac{d y}{d x} \; = \; - \frac{\partial z}{\partial x}\left(\frac{\partial z}{\partial y}\right)^{-1} and the minus sign appears automatically. What is going on in equation (⋆)(\star) is what you naturally write down when performing implicit differentiation.

Mark Hennings - 7 years, 7 months ago

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Thanks a lot! I didn't the chain rule had to be modified. This makes it way more clear and now I see why I'm obtain these results. Thanks again!

Samuel Hatin - 7 years, 7 months ago
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