The Chain Rule & Implicit Differentiation

Given \(z = f(x,y)\) such that \(x\) and \(y\) are themselves multi-variable functions of some parameters \(s\) and \(t,\)

\(\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{d}z}{\mathrm{d}s} = \frac{\partial z}{\partial x} \frac{\mathrm{d}x}{\mathrm{d}s} + \frac{\partial z}{\partial y} \frac{\mathrm{d}y}{\mathrm{d}s} \)
\(\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{d}z}{\mathrm{d}t} = \frac{\partial z}{\partial x} \frac{\mathrm{d}x}{\mathrm{d}t} + \frac{\partial z}{\partial y} \frac{\mathrm{d}y}{\mathrm{d}t} \,. \)

Given a formula \(F(x,y)=0\) in which \(y\) is implicitly defined as a function of \(x,\)

\(\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{d}y}{\mathrm{d}x} = -\dfrac{\dfrac{\partial F}{\partial x}}{\dfrac{\partial F}{\partial y}} = -\frac{F_x}{F_y} \,. \)

Given a formula \(F(x,y,z)=0\) in which \(z\) is implicitly defined as a function of \(x\) and \(y\)

\(\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{d}z}{\mathrm{d}x} = -\dfrac{\dfrac{\partial F}{\partial x}}{\dfrac{\partial F}{\partial z}} = -\frac{F_x}{F_z} \,. \)
\(\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{d}z}{\mathrm{d}y} = -\dfrac{\dfrac{\partial F}{\partial y}}{\dfrac{\partial F}{\partial z}} = -\frac{F_y}{F_z} \,. \)

Collectively, these previous equations are known as the implicit function theorem.