:PROPERTIES: :ID: 3993a45d-699b-4512-93f9-ba61f498f77f :END: #+title: partial derivative #+author: Preston Pan #+html_head: #+html_head: #+html_head: #+options: broken-links:t * Definition The operator \(\frac{\partial}{\partial x_{n}}\) takes the [[id:31d3944a-cddc-496c-89a3-67a56e821de3][derivative]] of a function \(f(\vec{x})\) with respect to \(x_{n}\) in the direction of the \(x_{n}\) axis. In other words, we take the derivative \(f(\vec{x})\) as if all variables except \(x_{n}\) is constant.