A variety of notations are used to denote the time derivative. In addition to the normal notation, A very common short-hand notation used, especially in physics, is the 'over-dot'. I.E. Higher time derivatives are also used: the second derivative with respect to time is written as with the corresponding shorthand of. As a generalization, the time derivative of a vector, say: is defined as the vector whose components are the derivatives of the components of the original vector. That is,
Use in physics
Time derivatives are a key concept in physics. For example, for a changing position, its time derivative is its velocity, and its second derivative with respect to time,, is its acceleration. Even higher derivatives are sometimes also used: the third derivative of position with respect to time is known as the jerk. See motion graphs and derivatives. A large number of fundamental equations in physics involve first or second time derivatives of quantities. Many other fundamental quantities in science are time derivatives of one another:
and so on. A common occurrence in physics is the time derivative of a vector, such as velocity or displacement. In dealing with such a derivative, both magnitude and orientation may depend upon time.
For example, consider a particle moving in a circular path. Its position is given by the displacement vector, related to the angle, θ, and radial distance, r, as defined in the figure: For this example, we assume that. Hence, the displacement at any time t is given by This form shows the motion described by r is in a circle of radius r because the magnitude of r is given by using the trigonometric identity and where is the usual euclideandot product. With this form for the displacement, the velocity now is found. The time derivative of the displacement vector is the velocity vector. In general, the derivative of a vector is a vector made up of components each of which is the derivative of the corresponding component of the original vector. Thus, in this case, the velocity vector is: Thus the velocity of the particle is nonzero even though the magnitude of the position is constant. The velocity is directed perpendicular to the displacement, as can be established using the dot product: Acceleration is then the time-derivative of velocity: The acceleration is directed inward, toward the axis of rotation. It points opposite to the position vector and perpendicular to the velocity vector. This inward-directed acceleration is called centripetal acceleration.
In differential geometry, quantities are often expressed with respect to the local covariant basis,, where i ranges over the number of dimensions. The components of a vector expressed this way transform as a contravariant tensor, as shown in the expression, invoking Einstein summation convention. If we want to calculate the time derivates of these components along a trajectory, so that we have, we can define a new operator, the invariant derivative, which will continue to return contravariant tensors: where captures the components of the velocity in the local covariant basis, and are the Christoffel symbols for the coordinate system. Note that explicit dependence on t has been repressed in the notation. We can then write: as well as: In terms of the covariant derivative,, we have:
In economics, many theoretical models of the evolution of various economic variables are constructed in continuous time and therefore employ time derivatives. One situation involves a stock variable and its time derivative, a flow variable. Examples include:
