Epsilon Delta definition of a Derivative

calculusderivativesepsilon-deltalimitsreal-analysis

The derivative at a specific point $c$ is represented as a limit by:
$$ f'(c) = \lim_{x\to c} \frac{f(x) – f(c)}{x – c} $$

It's clear to me that the epsilon delta definition of a derivative at a point $c$ would be:

$$
\forall \epsilon > 0 ~\exists \delta > 0 \forall x: \\
0 < |x-c| < \delta \rightarrow |\frac{f(x)-f(c)}{x-c} – L| < \epsilon
$$

What's unclear to me is how to formally represent the derivative as a function of $x$, rather than only at point $c$. Basically, how would we represent this limit formally (the $\Delta x$ is the part tripping me up):

$$ f'(x) = \lim_{\Delta x\to0} \frac{f(x + \Delta x) – f(x)}{\Delta x} $$

Best Answer

You do know the definition of limit, right? So, just apply it. We can argue that if the derivative at $x$ is $L$, then $$\forall \epsilon > 0 ~\exists \delta > 0 \;\forall \Delta x: \\ 0<|\Delta x| < \delta \implies \left|\frac{f(x + \Delta x) - f(x)}{\Delta x}-L\right| < \epsilon$$ Also, the derivative as a function, $f^\prime (x)$ is simply a function which takes a point in, and spits out the derivative of $f$ at that point. So, you can also define definition of a derivative at a point $c$ and collect all those derivatives under a function.

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