Differential or Derivatives in MATLAB

Differentiation of a function y = f(x) tells us how the value of y changes with respect to change in x. It can also be termed as the slope of a function.

Derivative of a function f(x) wrt to x is represented as 

MATLAB allows users to calculate the derivative of a function using diff() method. Different syntax of diff() method are:

• f' = diff(f)
• f' = diff(f, a)
• f' = diff(f, b, 2)

f' = diff(f)

It returns the derivative of function f(x) wrt variable x.

Example 1:

Output :

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Example 2: Evaluating the derivative of a function at a specified value using subs(y,x,k).

• subs(y,x,k), it gives the value of function y at x = k.

Output :

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f' = diff(f, a)

• It returns the derivative of function f with respect to variable a.

Output :

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f' = diff(f, b, 2)

It returns the double derivative of function f with respect to variable b.

Example 1:

Output :

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In the same way, you can also calculate the k-order derivative of function f using diff(f,x,k).

Example 2: 

Calculating the partial derivative } using Jacobian matrix and determinant.

Output :

 

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