Homework Help Forum: Calculus

Posted by Nikita on Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 1:15pm.

What is implicit differentiation...as in what would be the steps in solving it. I read my textbook but it seems very confusing. 1) Differentiate both sides with respect to x 2) Realize that y is a function of x 3) Solve for y Plus the d/dx notation made it even more confusing. Can someone please explain this to me simply? Thanks

• Calculus - bobpursley, Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 1:24pm

  http://www.math.ucdavis.edu/~kouba/CalcOneDIRECTORY/implicitdiffdirectory/ImplicitDiff.html That is an excellent discussion. Here is an example: x^3 + xy^2 + x^2 y=14 find dy/dx by implicit diff: 3x^2 dx/dx + y^2 dx/dx + 2yxdy/dx +2xydx/dx+x^2 dy/dx=0 butdx/dx is one, so 3x^2+y^2+2xy + dy/dx (2xy+x^2)=0 so dy/dx=-(3x^2+y^3 +2xy)/(2xy-x^2)

  
  

Answer this Question

First Name:
School Subject:
Answer:

For Further Reading