Recent content by plob

Did you mean minus?

Hi fresh42 do the arrow symbols you are using indicate one-to-one mapping?

Hi Stephen thanks. I think I get what you mean 'a mathematician might consider intepreting ... as bad notation for ...' but I'm not 100% positive. You mean that since L is uniquely determined, i.e. single valued, with respect to x, it should be a regular rather than a partial derivative and...

That is fine. Yes, this has actually been shown to me by others, i.e., that while not a strict mathematical necessity, interdependent function arguments can sometimes help to emphasize the role of certain physical quantities when dealing with the sciences

Hi WWGD Since the equation for the graph of a circle, which would be x2+y2=constant is not even a function ...it is neither a function of y or x... I am not clear on the relevance this has to my OP, which is about functions and their arguments. Perhaps you wouldn't mind elaborating? Or...

Hi, This is on the wikipedia entry for the Euler Lagrange equation. Here is a link. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculus_of_variations#Euler%E2%80%93Lagrange_equation The notation I am confused about is this: Aren't the y(x) and the y'(x) unnecessary to list as arguments when x is...

Hi I guess one of my problems is that it is easy for me to hear a 'for instance' like that one example and then over generalize. ie, hope that THAT is as tough as things get. But I guess spatial reasoning can't help with certain instances I guess I've hijacked the OP.

Hi stevendaryl can you explain to me what he means?

Sorry about the formatting problem in my quote

Hi as described this sounds like a unit tangential vector. So I'm wondering if that is true. would it ever not be equal to one?

Hi steven, yes

Hi, thank you I'm sure this is probably right But don't really have the background to grasp the last part. My fault sorry. Is it possible there might be a more intuitive way of understanding

Hi, basic cartesian coordinates and we want to know the gradient of a scalar function of x,y, and z. So we can use the most basic basis there is of three orthogonal unit vectors and come up with the gradient of the scalar function. Now without rescaling the coordinate system or altering it in...