Why does f = g in implicit equations?

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etotheipi
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I saw something in my notes that I didn't understand... we have ##y=f(x)##, and consider an implicit equation of the form ##g(y) = f(x)##. They then say that ##f=g##. Why is that true? I would have thought$$f = \{ (a,f(a)) : a\in \mathbb{R} \} \subseteq \mathbb{R}^2$$whilst ##g## is just$$g = \{ (a,a) : a\in \mathbb{R} \} \subseteq \mathbb{R}^2$$What am I missing? Thanks!
 
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PeroK said:
I can't make much sense of that. Explicitly ##g(y) = y##.

Thanks, I presumed it was a mistake of some variety but wanted to check!
 
Can you post an image of this section in your notes or type out exactly what it says? There might be hidden assumptions.
 
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It's essentially:
"It is also possible to differentiate an expression of the form ##g(y) = f(x)## with respect to ##x##,$$\frac{dg(y)}{dy} \frac{dy}{dx} = \frac{df}{dx}$$Rearranging, we find that the implicit function ##g(y) = f(x)## gives$$\frac{dy}{dx} = \frac{df}{dx}/\frac{dg}{dy}$$Since the function is defined with ##f=g##, this looks like we are simply computing the quotient of two quotients."
The implicit differentiation is fine, but that final remark caught me a little off guard...
 
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etotheipi said:
It's essentially:The implicit differentiation is fine, but that final remark caught me a little off guard...

Yeah, that final remark looks weird. I would just ignore it.
 
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etotheipi said:
It's essentially:The implicit differentiation is fine, but that final remark caught me a little off guard...
The last remark doesn't make a lot of sense. If we invert the latter derivative we have:
$$\frac{dy}{dx} = \frac{df}{dx}\frac{dy}{dg}$$ which looks like the chain rule, if we allow the association ##f \leftrightarrow g##.

I.e. if we imagine parametrising a curve ##x(t), y(t)##, then ##f## and ##g## have the same value on the curve:
$$\hat g(t) \equiv g(y(t)) = f(x(t)) \equiv \hat f(t)$$ and ##\hat f = \hat g##.
 
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