Re: RE: Models, etc.

[PPARKER@TWSUVM.UC.TWSU.EDU]

> Date: Sun, 2 Nov 1997 19:36:16 -0500
> From: Hugh Haskell <hhaskell@mindspring.com>
>
> Is my mathematical recollection incorrect, or it it true that when the
> nth derivative of a function is zero for all values of the independent
> variable, that the derivative process stops? In other words, doesn't a
> quadratic function have only two derivatives, and not "derivative[s] of
> all orders"?

No, the derivative *process* doesn't stop: the constant function 0 is
infinitely differentiable (even analytic, holomorphic, etc.).  But all
the derivatives thereafter are also identically zero, so "it" stops in
the sense that nothing seems to change thereafter.

---------------------------------------------
Phil Parker        pparker@twsuvm.uc.twsu.edu
Random quote for this second:
  Chisholm's First Corollary to Murphy's Second Law:
  When things just can't possibly get any worse, they will.