Wednesday, 10 September 2014

multivariable calculus - Intuition behind differentiability

I've just started studying multi-variable calculus and I found myself mumbling a lot over the definition of differentiability. Here's the one I'm using. A function if differentiable if
limxx0f(x)f(x0)f(xx0)xx0=0


Now, I recall that the gradient gives the direction of maximum increase of the function, and I understand that the term with the gradient gives, in fact, the component of the gradient in the direction of the vector xx0. What I do not understand is why, rearranging the limit, the limit for xx0 of limxx0f(x)f(x0)xx0
has to be precisely
f(xx0)xx0
Thank you in advance for your time.

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