# Directional derivative

In mathematics, the directional derivative of a multivariate differentiable (scalar) function along a given vector v at a given point x intuitively represents the instantaneous rate of change of the function, moving through x with a velocity specified by v.

The directional derivative of a scalar function f with respect to a vector v at a point (e.g., position) x may be denoted by any of the following:

${\displaystyle \nabla _{\mathbf {v} }{f}(\mathbf {x} )=f'_{\mathbf {v} }(\mathbf {x} )=D_{\mathbf {v} }f(\mathbf {x} )=Df(\mathbf {x} )(\mathbf {v} )=\partial _{\mathbf {v} }f(\mathbf {x} )=\mathbf {v} \cdot {\nabla f(\mathbf {x} )}=\mathbf {v} \cdot {\frac {\partial f(\mathbf {x} )}{\partial \mathbf {x} }}}$.

It therefore generalizes the notion of a partial derivative, in which the rate of change is taken along one of the curvilinear coordinate curves, all other coordinates being constant. The directional derivative is a special case of the Gateaux derivative.

###### Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Directional derivative, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.