# Gradient: derive deriver diff grad

### 5.21.1 Gradient: derive deriver diff grad

The derive command finds partial derivatives of a multivariable expression.
diff and grad can be used synonymously for derive here.

- derive takes two arguments:
  - expr, an expression involving n real variables.
  - [x1,…,xn], a vector of the variable names.
- derive(expr,[x1,…,xn]) returns the gradient of expr; namely, the vector of partial derivatives of expr with respect to x1, …, xn.
  For example, in dimension n=3, with variables [x,y,z],

  ▸

  grad

  (F)= [

  ∂ F
  ∂ x

  ,

  ∂ F
  ∂ y

  ,

  ∂ F
  ∂ z

  ]

#### Example.

Find the gradient of F(x,y,z)=2x2y−xz3.
Input:

derive(2*x^2*y-x*z^3,[x,y,z])

or:

diff(2*x^2*y-x*z^3,[x,y,z])

or:

grad(2*x^2*y-x*z^3,[x,y,z])

Output:

⎡ ⎣ | 2· 2 x y−z3,2 x2,−3 x z2 | ⎤ ⎦

Output after simplification with normal(ans()):

⎡ ⎣ | 4 x y−z3,2 x2,−3 x z2 | ⎤ ⎦

To find the critical points of F(x,y,z)=2x2y−xz3:
Input:

solve(derive(2*x^2*y-x*z^3,[x,y,z]),[x,y,z])

Output:

⎡ ⎣ | ⎡ ⎣ | 0,y,0 | ⎤ ⎦ | ⎤ ⎦