I have not yet had the privilege of studying multivariable calculus, but I have made an educated guess about how to find the minimum or maximum of a function with two variables, for example, and .
Since, in three dimensions, a minimum or maximum would be represented by a tangent plane with no slope in any direction, could I treat as a constant and differentiate with respect to , then treat as a constant and differentiate with respect to , and find the places where both of these two are equal to zero?
Sorry if this is just a stupid assumption... it may be one of those things that just seems correct but is actually wrong.