Two varibale function. Continuity, derivability and differentiability

Dansuer
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Homework Statement


Discuss the continuity, derivability and differentiability of the function

f(x,y) = \frac{x^3}{x^2+y^2} if (x,y)≠(0,0) and 0 otherwise

Homework Equations


if f is differentiable then ∇f.v=\frac{∂f}{∂v}
if f has both continuous partial derivative in a neighbourhood of x_0 then it's differentiable in x_0

The Attempt at a Solution


I have no problem with continuity.
For derivability i consider the definition of directional derivative in an arbitray direction (α,β)
\frac{f(αt,βt)-f(0,0)}{t}=\frac{α^3t^3-0}{t^3}=α^3
all the directional derivatives exist.
this equation ∇f.v=\frac{∂f}{∂v} tells me that the directional derivative should depend linearly on α and β which is not the case, f is not differentialble in x_0

on the other hand it's easy to calculate the partial derivatives in a neighborood of (0,0) and see that they are continous.
f(x,0)=x \ \ \ f(0,y)=0
\frac{∂}{∂x}f(x,0)=1 \ \ \ \frac{∂}{∂y}f(0,y)=0

i get two different results with two different approaches and i can't figure out what's wrong with one of them, or both :-p

any help is appreciated
 
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The partial derivatives are not continuous. To see this, compute either of them at ##p \neq (0,0)## and take the limit as ##p \rightarrow 0##.

If I am not mistaken, what you showed is that the functions ## f_x(x,0), f_y(0,y)## of one variable (the other being fixed to zero) are continuous.
 
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Oh i see what's the problem. Thanks a lot for the help :biggrin:
 
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