Calculus: Early Transcendentals 8th Edition

Published by Cengage Learning
ISBN 10: 1285741552
ISBN 13: 978-1-28574-155-0

Chapter 14 - Section 14.3 - Partial Derivatives - 14.3 Exercise - Page 925: 46

Answer

$f_{x}(x, y) =\frac{y^{2}}{\left(x+y^{2}\right)^{2}} $ $f_{y}(x, y)=\frac{-2 x y}{\left(x+y^{2}\right)^{2}}$

Work Step by Step

$$ f(x,y)=\frac{x}{x+y^{2}} $$ The partial derivative of $f$ with respect to $x$ is given by: $$ \begin{aligned} f_{x}(x, y) &=\lim _{h \rightarrow 0} \frac{f(x+h, y)-f(x, y)}{h} \\ &=\lim _{h \rightarrow 0} \frac{\frac{x+h}{x+h+y^{2}}-\frac{x}{x+y^{2}}}{h} \cdot \frac{\left(x+h+y^{2}\right)\left(x+y^{2}\right)}{\left(x+h+y^{2}\right)\left(x+y^{2}\right)} \\ &=\lim _{h \rightarrow 0} \frac{(x+h)\left(x+y^{2}\right)-x\left(x+h+y^{2}\right)}{h\left(x+h+y^{2}\right)\left(x+y^{2}\right)}\\ &=\lim _{h \rightarrow 0} \frac{y^{2} h}{h\left(x+h+y^{2}\right)\left(x+y^{2}\right)} \\ &=\lim _{h \rightarrow 0} \frac{y^{2}}{\left(x+h+y^{2}\right)\left(x+y^{2}\right)} \\ &=\frac{y^{2}}{\left(x+y^{2}\right)^{2}} \end{aligned} $$ The partial derivative of $f$ with respect to $y$ is given by: $$ \begin{aligned} f_{y}(x, y) &=\lim _{h \rightarrow 0} \frac{f(x, y+h)-f(x, y)}{h} \\ &=\lim _{h \rightarrow 0} \frac{\frac{x}{x+(y+h)^{2}}-\frac{x}{x+y^{2}}}{h} \cdot \frac{\left[x+(y+h)^{2}\right]\left(x+y^{2}\right)}{\left[x+(y+h)^{2}\right]\left(x+y^{2}\right)} \\ &=\lim _{h \rightarrow 0} \frac{x\left(x+y^{2}\right)-x\left[x+(y+h)^{2}\right]}{h\left[x+(y+h)^{2}\right]\left(x+y^{2}\right)} \\ &=\lim _{h \rightarrow 0} \frac{h(-2 x y-x h)}{h\left[x+(y+h)^{2}\right]\left(x+y^{2}\right)} \\ &=\lim _{h \rightarrow 0} \frac{-2 x y-x h}{\left[x+(y+h)^{2}\right]\left(x+y^{2}\right)}\\ &=\frac{-2 x y}{\left(x+y^{2}\right)^{2}} \end{aligned} $$
Update this answer!

You can help us out by revising, improving and updating this answer.

Update this answer

After you claim an answer you’ll have 24 hours to send in a draft. An editor will review the submission and either publish your submission or provide feedback.