this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2023
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Science Memes

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[–] onion@feddit.de 45 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If I remeber right you can do that, because there's a longer and proper way that arrives at the same conclusion

[–] Successful_Try543@feddit.de 21 points 1 year ago

Yes, and what is aimed for is separation of variables to find a solution of this differential equation. (The differential operator d should be printed as upright letter btw)

[–] marcos@lemmy.world -3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Just like any kind of mathematics ever.

You can also do it with numbers, because there's a longer and proper way that arrives on the same conclusion.

[–] maeries@feddit.de 7 points 1 year ago

Exept when there isn't

Yes, yes we can!

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 year ago

There's no reason it shouldn't work.

dy/dx is the same as (y1 - y2) / (x1 - x2) as the distance between the two points approaches zero. "dx" and "dy" aren't very useful measurements on their own though.

[–] nothacking@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 1 year ago

Worse, I like to cancel out the "d"s.

[–] topinambour_rex@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Haus@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You can't multiply both sides by dx in much the same way you can't differentiate a duck. That said, even pure mathematicians sort of think of it that way as a useful shorthand.

[–] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Can't you just use infinitesimals and then actually multiply them? It never results in an invalid operation with the normal dx, only the one with the fancy d (forgive my lack of terminology knowledge)

[–] Haus@kbin.social 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

In (d/dx)f(x), d/dx is a symbol that means the derivative of f with respect to x. It's not a division of two variables. But, the reason the symbol is useful is that you sort of can multiply the dx in some situations.

[–] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

I understand that it's a symbol, not a fraction, and that the top and bottom are linked and not separable. But, you can also use an equivalent infintesimal fraction dy/dx with the actual infintesimal values dy and dx being manipulatable. If I'm wrong, you'll be able to find an example that doesn't work (without using partial derivatives-- those actually can't be cancelled).