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you notice you don't do anything to y;
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y will be left fixed at whatever y you had;
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x will be changed by Δx, you find the change;
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you take the derivative and take the limit
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that is denoted by the symbol df / dx.
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So, this curly d instead of the straight d
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tells you it's called a "Partial derivative."
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Some people may want to make it very explicit
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by saying this is the derivative with subscript y.
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That means y is being held constant when x is varied,
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but we don't have to write that
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because we know we've got two coordinates.