Find the maximum value of the directional derivative of f(x,y,z) = x²yz³ at point (1,1,1) in any direction.
Answer: The maximum value of the directional derivative is .
Step-by-step solution
Step 1: Calculate the gradient of the function
The directional derivative of a function is maximized in the direction of the gradient vector . First, we need to calculate the partial derivatives of with respect to , , and .
Step 2: Compute partial derivatives
We compute the partial derivatives: by treating and as constants, by treating and as constants, and by treating and as constants.
Step 3: Evaluate the gradient at the given point
Now we substitute the point into the partial derivatives to find the gradient vector at that specific point. This vector indicates the direction of the steepest ascent of the function.
Step 4: Calculate the magnitude of the gradient
The maximum value of the directional derivative is the magnitude of the gradient vector. We calculate the magnitude using the formula for the length of a vector in three dimensions.