Higher Order Derivatives

  • First order derivative: f'(x) or dy/dx, also called "First Derivative"

  • Second order derivative: f''(x) or d²y/dx², also called "Second Derivative"

  • ...

Second derivatives

The second derivative of a function is simply the derivative of the function's derivative.

Notation: Leibniz's notation for second derivative is: image image

Second derivatives of implicit equations

▶ Back to previous note on Implicit Differentiation ▶ Practice at Khan academy: Second derivatives (implicit equations)

▶ Online calculator for 2nd Derivative of Implicit equations

Example

image Solve: image

Example

image Solve:

  • The first derivative is:

    image

  • The second derivative is:

    image

  • Plug in y=1, and get:

    image

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