Multivariate functions

Why study multivariate calculus?
It is applicable in any subject area, especially in any area making use of statistics and modeling. Life is full of multivariate functions! It would be a joke to stop at univariate - it's almost a joke to start there! It's just that they're the easiest to work with, of course ....
Multivariate calculus is essentially a generalization of univariate calculus: there's not a lot that's truly new, but it will be more complex and take unfamiliar forms.
Examples of multivariate functions?
- Raccoon rabies
- buying a car
- coin collecting
- temperature distributions
One of the most serious issues is that it's hard to represent multivariate functions of two variables on the plane. Attempted solutions:
- Use 3-space! Models
- projections
- contours
- tables
When function have more than two independent variables, we're really out of luck! That's when a computer comes in really handy....
We'll be using technology to help us understand multivariate functions (including Mathematica)

Website maintained by Andy Long. Comments appreciated.