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Differentiate pi^3 (1 Viewer)

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Shadowdude

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Trying LaTeXing a 70 page document :p
Two years from now. Honours thesis. *shudder*


i've heard stories from honours students: "i just use templates", "i got my friend's thesis and just edited the words but kept the formatting", "i saw the professor have a book about this thick *gestures with hands* called 'How to Use Latex'", etc.

:(
 

funstudy

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Because it's a constant, and whenever you differntiate a constant it equals zero. e.g. differntiate 5 and you get zero.
 

ahdil33

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If you want something algebraic, imagine a constant, say 5, as actaully being 5(x)^0. Then when you begin taking the power and multiplying it by the function and subtracting the power by one, you end up multiplying by zero so it's 0. At least that's how I thought of it.
 

SpiralFlex

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A geometric interpretation of differentiation would make it understandable.
 

cutemouse

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You lose a lot of low-level control by using Lyx.
Yes, and the whole idea of LaTeX is not WYSIWYG... defeats the purpose IMO.

I know old fashion people who just use a text editor for LaTeX and compile it at the command line... I prefer a LaTeX editor though...
 

Trebla

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Far out I can't believe this thread is still going....
 

Shadowdude

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I sincerely hope that nobody here believes that this statement makes any sense (assuming pi means what it usually does).
It makes perfect sense though. It's equivalent to say:




Moral of the story is you have to specify what you're differentiating with respect to :p
 

braintic

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It makes perfect sense though. It's equivalent to say:




Moral of the story is you have to specify what you're differentiating with respect to :p
It makes ABSOLUTELY no sense.
You can only differentiate wrt a variable.
Does it make any sense to ask d/d1 (2) ?
In words "Find the rate at which 2 changes as 1 changes".

Surely you can see that this statement is total rubbish.

You can only differentiate wrt something that is actually free to change.
 

Shadowdude

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It makes ABSOLUTELY no sense.
You can only differentiate wrt a variable.
Does it make any sense to ask d/d1 (2) ?
In words "Find the rate at which 2 changes as 1 changes".

Surely you can see that this statement is total rubbish.

You can only differentiate wrt something that is actually free to change.
If you define "1" as a variable, then yes. But that's just a silly example. Pi, as said before, can represent a function or be a variable - so there are situations when it is "legal" to differentiate it - and not just a contrived example.
 
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