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Jacobian   (English)

Definition (undergraduate level)

For n functions fi of n variables xi, the Jacobian, written [(∂( f1 , f2 , ... , fn ))/( ∂( x1 , x2 , ... , x n ) )] is the following determinant:










f1

x1
f1

x2
...
f1

x n
f2

x1
f2

x2
...
f2

xn
:
:
:
fn

x1
fn

x2
...
fn

xn










It is useful when we need to perform a change of coordinates in an integral with several variables; it gives eg the ratio of dxdydz to df(x,y,z)dg(x,y,z)dh(x,y,z).

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