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Any-Growth8158 t1_iy5nbp0 wrote

Reply to comment by ComradeMicha in ELI5 what is dy/dx? by EarlaSallow

You actually cannot calculate this for every known function.

Many functions have points where this will not work (e.g any non-continuous functions like the signum function, or non-smooth functions like absolute value) and some esoteric ones (like the Weierstrass function) can't be differentiated anywhere.

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TheJeeronian t1_iy5uz6w wrote

It's a pretty fun thought experiment to make up a value and pretend that this value is d(sign(x))/dx at 0, then try to run through some normal calculus with this new constant.

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