If we have some closed form multivariable function say 2-in, 1-out, the cross sections of the graph parallel to the xz and yz plane have equations that are inherently closed form. But is the same true for the diagonal cross sections?

Emmy Swanson

Emmy Swanson

Answered question

2022-10-13

If we have some closed form multivariable function say 2-in, 1-out, the cross sections of the graph parallel to the x z and y z plane have equations that are inherently closed form.
But is the same true for the diagonal cross sections? Say for example we have the function f:
f ( x , y ) = e y sin ( x )
If we're given a v say, [1, 2] would the cross section of the graph of the plane formed by the z-axis and v inherently be closed form as f is on the axes?

Answer & Explanation

Carly Yang

Carly Yang

Beginner2022-10-14Added 19 answers

The answer is yes, and it's easy to see why. Let's say we have some "nice" expression for f ( x , y ). We want to consider the graph made by slicing the plane by some arbitrary vector, say v R 2 . More precisely, what we are doing here is considering a the z coordinate of a path
r ( t ) = ( x ( t )   ,   y ( t )   ,   f ( x ( t ) , y ( t ) ) )
Where x ( t ) , y ( t ) are just straight lines given by the components of v :
x ( t ) = v x t
y ( t ) = v y t
So all we have to do is plug in these expressions to get our graph. In the case of f ( x , y ) = sin ( x ) e y and v = ( 1 , 2 ) this is simply
sin ( t ) e 2 t

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