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3.5.3 Derivatives of Unknown Functions
Differentiating a known function gives an explicit result.
In[1]:= D[Log[x]^2, x]
Out[1]= 
Differentiating an unknown function f gives a result in terms of f'.
In[2]:= D[f[x]^2, x]
Out[2]= 
Mathematica applies the chain rule for differentiation, and leaves the result in terms of f'.
In[3]:= D[x f[x^2], x]
Out[3]= 
Differentiating again gives a result in terms of f, f' and f''.
In[4]:= D[%, x]
Out[4]= 
When a function has more than one argument, superscripts are used to indicate how many times each argument is being differentiated.
In[5]:= D[g[x^2, y^2], x]
Out[5]= 
This represents  . Mathematica
assumes that the order in which derivatives are taken with respect to different variables is irrelevant.
In[6]:= D[g[x, y], x, x, y]
Out[6]= 
You can find the value of the derivative when  by replacing x with 0
.
In[7]:= % /. x->0
Out[7]= 
Output forms for derivatives of unknown functions.
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