# Using Newtons notation V. Leibniz notation

1. Sep 12, 2008

### thharrimw

when is it better to use Newtons Notation nsted of Lebiniz notation?

2. Sep 12, 2008

### sutupidmath

I guess you are talking about the notation of derivatives. Well, i don't really know when is it better to use Newtons notation instead of Leibniz ones, but i'll go the other way around, it is very convinient to use Leibniz notation when you need to emphasize with respect to what variable you are taking the derivative of the function...like think when you have related rates, and you are differentiating implicitly.

3. Sep 12, 2008

### thharrimw

sorry i should have said that I'm talking about derivatives! I was wondering becouse in my physics book it has newtons and in my calc book it uses leibinz and i didn't know if it made a difference or not.

4. Sep 12, 2008

### sutupidmath

Say you have this function y=f(x) then the following expressions all indicate that you are taking the derivative of this function, so you can use them interchangebly, however, as i pointed out using one notation vs the other has it's advantages when you want to indicate the derivative with respect to what variable you are taking, especially when you go to partial derivatives, or multivariable calculus, then leibniz notation is all you'll see.

$$f'(x)=\frac{dy}{dx}=\frac{d}{dx}f(x)=D_x$$ etc convey the same msg.