MATH 2019: ENGINEERING MATHEMATICS 2E

SEMESTER 1, 2015
Course information:
Lecture Stream 1 Instructor: Dr. Shane Keating
Red Centre 2081, Email: s.keating@unsw.edu.au
Lecture Stream 2 Instructor: Prof. John Roberts
Red Centre 3065, Email: jag.roberts@unsw.edu.au

In this course you will learn and master some of the mathematical tools you will need in
your scientific and engineering careers. As with any new tool, practice makes perfect,
so we will work though a lot of examples and practice problems during lectures. In
addition, you will participate in small-group tutorials, where you will work through the
problems in the MATH2019 tutorial problem set.
We will be meeting for 5 lectures per week and you will also have 1 tutorial per week.
Lectures run from Weeks 1-12 and the tutorials from Week 2-13. There are no tutorials in
Week 1. The tutorial problems are available for download on the Moodle page.
Every now and then the lecture will be a problem class where we will go through a
selection of problems from past exam papers.
You need to hold a Math1231 pass or better to enrol in Math2019.
The lecture notes are available for download from Moodle. You must bring a printout of the lecture material to each of the lectures. On Moodle you will also find
the course outline as well as links to extra learning materials.
You do not need to purchase a text book for this course. Your printed lecture notes will
be sufficient. Additional course notes are available on the Moodle course page.
There is no MAPLE in Math2019.
Course Assessment: There will be two short tests (valued at 20% each) in the Week
6 and 10 tutorials. The final exam is worth 60%. Details are in the course outline.

LECTURE 1
PARTIAL DIFFERENTIATION
The definition of partial differentiation:
Suppose z = f (x, y). Define the partial derivatives of f with respect to x and y as
f (x + x, y) f (x, y)
f
= lim
,
x x0
x

f
f (x, y + y) f (x, y)
= lim
y y0
y

Notation
f
= fx = zx ,
x

f
= fy = zy
y

In your previous studies the focus was on functions of a single variable y = f (x) and their
dy
rates of change
. It is however quite rare for a quantity of interest to depend on only
dx
one variable and in complicated physical systems it may be the case that the variable you
are concerned with may depend upon dozens of other variables. Partial differentiation is
the extension of our usual calculus to functions of several variables.
Given a function of two variables z = f (x, y) we denote the rates of change in the x
z
z
and
or simply as zx and zy . The formal definitions of these
and y directions as
x
y
derivatives are presented above however in reality we only need to remember a few things
to differentiate partially:

Simple rules for differentiation

y0
nxn1
aeax
a cos(ax)
a sin(ax)
1
ln(ax)
x
sinh(ax) a cosh(ax)
cosh(ax) a sinh(ax)
y
xn
eax
sin(ax)
cos(ax)

General rules for differentiation

(uv)0 = u0 v + v 0 u
 u 0
vu0 uv 0
=
v
v2

Product Rule
Quotient Rule

The only new issue that needs to be kept in mind is that the partial derivative treats all
other variables exactly as if they were constant.

Example 1 Find

z
z
and
if z = x2 + y 5 + 7.
x
y

z
z
= 2x,
= 5y 4
x
y

Example 2 Suppose that z = f (x, y) = x3 y 5 + 3x 8y + 2. Find the function value

and the rate of change of f in the x direction at the point (1, 2).

F f (1, 2) = 21,
3

z
(1, 2) = 99 F
x

Example 3 Find

w
w
and
if w = u3 v 4 + sinh(v 9 ) .
u
v

w
w
= 3u2 v 4 ,
= 4u3 v 3 + 9v 8 cosh(v 9 ) F
u
v

z
z
e7y
Example 4 Find
and
if z = 3
.
x
y
x +1

F
4

z
3e7y x2 z
7e7y
= 3
,
=
x
(x + 1)2 y
x3 + 1

Plotting in Space
Before examining partial derivatives from a geometrical point of view let us consider the
issue of sketching in higher dimensions.

1
1
Example 5 Plot the points 2 and 2 in R3 .
4
4

You will observe that plotting in R3 is somewhat problematic as you are trying to squeeze
three dimensions onto a two dimensional page. It gets worse!

1
2
4

Example 6 Plot the point

4 in R .
7

You will recall that the graph of y = f (x) is generally a curve in R2 ......lines, parabolas,
hyperbolas etc. The graph of z = f (x, y) is always a surface in R3 .
Example 7 Sketch each of the following surfaces in space:
a) 3x + 4y + 6z = 12
b) x2 + y 2 + z 2 = 25
c) x2 + y 2 = 9
p
d) z = 3 x2 + y 2
e) z = x2 + y 2

Question How about x = y 2 + z 2 ?

SUMMARY
a) ax + by + cz = d is a plane.
b) x2 + y 2 + z 2 = r2 is a sphere centred on the origin with radius r.
c) If a variable is absent then the function is independent of this variable. Extrude the
two dimensional curve into the missing direction.
d) z =

p
1
x2 + y 2 is a cone with semi-vertical angle tan1 ( ).

e) z = (x2 + y 2 ) is a paraboloid of revolution.

GEOMETRICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE PARTIAL DERIVATIVES

There is of course no reason why we must restrict ourselves to two independent variables!!
Example 8 If f (x1 , x2 , x3 , x4 , x5 , x6 ) = x31 x43 +
find

x5
sinh(x2 )
+ ln(x4 )
sin(x6 )
e x1

f
.
x4

F
9

1
x4

As in single variable calculus we make extensive use of second and higher order derivatives. However with partial differentiation we have many more options!
Example 9 If z = f (x, y) = x2 sin(y) + x3 y + y 5 find
z
x

z
y

2z
xy

2z
yx

2z
x2

2z
y 2

2z
2z
=
This is true for most reasonably
xy yx
2z
2z
=
6
.
well behaved functions. Note however that in general
x2
y 2
2z
z z
Note also that
is most definitely not equal to ( )( ).
xy
x y
You will observe in the above example that

You can now do Qs 1 to 4

10