After completing this section, students should be able to do the following.

  • Compute partial derivatives.
  • Recognize various notation for partial derivatives.
  • Estimate partial derivatives from tables.
  • Estimate partial derivatives from a set of level curves.
  • Compute the gradient vector.
  • Compute the total differential.
  • Use the total differential to approximate the value of a function.
  • Use the total differential to understand error propagation.