Partial Derivatives and Vector Fields

1. Partial Derivatives

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For a multivariable function, like $f(x,y)=x^{2}y$ computing partial derivatives looks something like this:

2. Vector Fields

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2.1. Vector fields in two dimensions

A vector-valued function $F:R^2\to R^2$ confused? can be visualized as a vector field. At a point $(x,y),$ we plot the value of $F(x,y)$ as a vector with tail anchored at $(x,y)$, such as in the following figure.

For example, consider the function $F(x,y)=(y,-x)$. We calculate values of the function at a set of points, such as

如果真的这么画图，就会显示的相当混乱，因为向量都不是相同长度，所以我们采用相同长度额箭头，然后以颜色深度来表示长短。

所以$F(x,y)=(y,-x)$的vector field 长下面这个样子

The vector field $F(x,y,z)=(\frac{y}{z},\frac{-x}{z},0)$ corresponds to a rotation in three dimensions, where the vector rotates around the z-axis. This vector field is similar to the two-dimensional rotation above. In this case, since we divided by $z$, the magnitude of the vector field decreases as $z$ increases.

注意，输出的$z$的值固定为0，这意味着箭头只会左右拐弯，不会上下倾斜，所以看着就是有无数个$xy$平面，箭头只是像上一个图一样拐弯倾斜，不会出现上下倾斜的情况。

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Credit To:

https://mathinsight.org/vector_field_overview