[Math] What do the symbols d/dx and dy/dx mean

Question

Okay this may sound stupid but I need a little help…
What do $\Large \frac{d}{dx}$ and $\Large \frac{dy}{dx}$ mean?

I need a thorough explanation. Thanks.

Answer 1

The symbol $$ \frac{dy}{dx} $$ means the derivative of $y$ with respect to $x$. If $y = f(x)$ is a function of $x$, then the symbol is defined as $$ \frac{dy}{dx} = \lim_{h\to 0}\frac{f(x+h) - f(x)}{h}. $$ and this is is (again) called the derivative of $y$ or the derivative of $f$. Note that it again is a function of $x$ in this case. Note that we do not here define this as $dy$ divided by $dx$. On their own $dy$ and $dx$ don't have any meaning (here). We take $\frac{dy}{dx}$ as a symbol on its own that can't be slit up into parts.

The symbol $$ \frac{d}{dx} $$ you can consider as an operator. You can apply this operator to a (differentiable) function. And you get a new function. So if $f$ is a (differentiable) function that it makes sense to "apply" $\frac{d}{dx}$ to $f$ and write $$ \frac{d}{dx}f $$ If you write $y = f(x)$, then this is the same as $$ \frac{d}{dx}y = \frac{dy}{dx}. $$