
5-1
5
Successive Differentiation
L E A RNIN G OBJE C TI V E S
After reading this chapter, you will be conversant with:
♦ Second-order Derivatives
♦ Higher-order Derivatives
♦ Successive Differentiation
♦ Leibnitz’s Theorem
♦ Successive Differentials
Introduction
Through examples, we have seen that the derivative of a function of x is again a function of x which
may also be differentiable. The derivative of the first derivative is called second derivative of the given
function provided that the first derivative is differentiable. The derivative of the second derivative is
called third derivative provided that the second derivative is differentiable. ...