3.II.9C

Vector Calculus | Part IA, 2004

For a function f:R2→Rf: \mathbb{R}^{2} \rightarrow \mathbb{R} state if the following implications are true or false. (No justification is required.)

(i) ff is differentiable ⇒f\Rightarrow f is continuous.

(ii) ∂f∂x\frac{\partial f}{\partial x} and ∂f∂y\frac{\partial f}{\partial y} exist ⇒f\Rightarrow f is continuous.

(iii) directional derivatives ∂f∂n\frac{\partial f}{\partial \mathbf{n}} exist for all unit vectors n∈R2⇒f\mathbf{n} \in \mathbb{R}^{2} \Rightarrow f is differentiable.

(iv) ff is differentiable ⇒∂f∂x\Rightarrow \frac{\partial f}{\partial x} and ∂f∂y\frac{\partial f}{\partial y} are continuous.

(v) all second order partial derivatives of ff exist ⇒∂2f∂x∂y=∂2f∂y∂x\Rightarrow \frac{\partial^{2} f}{\partial x \partial y}=\frac{\partial^{2} f}{\partial y \partial x}.

Now let f:R2→Rf: \mathbb{R}^{2} \rightarrow \mathbb{R} be defined by

f(x,y)={xy(x2−y2)(x2+y2) if (x,y)≠(0,0)0 if (x,y)=(0,0)f(x, y)= \begin{cases}\frac{x y\left(x^{2}-y^{2}\right)}{\left(x^{2}+y^{2}\right)} & \text { if }(x, y) \neq(0,0) \\ 0 & \text { if }(x, y)=(0,0)\end{cases}

Show that ff is continuous at (0,0)(0,0) and find the partial derivatives ∂f∂x(0,y)\frac{\partial f}{\partial x}(0, y) and ∂f∂y(x,0)\frac{\partial f}{\partial y}(x, 0). Then show that ff is differentiable at (0,0)(0,0) and find its derivative. Investigate whether the second order partial derivatives ∂2f∂x∂y(0,0)\frac{\partial^{2} f}{\partial x \partial y}(0,0) and ∂2f∂y∂x(0,0)\frac{\partial^{2} f}{\partial y \partial x}(0,0) are the same. Are the second order partial derivatives of ff at (0,0)(0,0) continuous? Justify your answer.

Typos? Please submit corrections to this page on GitHub.