HERE IS A LIST OF ALL THE KINDS OF "CHAIN RULE" IN THE VECTOR CALC BOOK. ----WD Smith, math 127, Spr 2003---------------------------------------- Capital letters are vectors, lowercase are scalars . = dot product X = cross product. (d/dt) [f(g(t)] = g'(t) f'(g(t)) usual scalar chain rule. Thm 15.4.1: (d/dt) [f(G(t))] = G'(t) . GRADf( G(t) ) Here GRADf should be interpreted as a single function name (just like G' is a single function name). (d/dt) [U(F(t)] = (F'(t) . GRAD) U. JacobianMatrix [U(F(x,y,z))] = JacobianMatrix[U at F] JacobianMatrix[F at x,y,z] (d/dt) [U(F(t))] = JacobianMatrix[U at F] (d/dt)F <-- this is a matrix-vector product The rows of the Jacobian matrix of F are the gradients of each of the components of (the vector-valued function) F. It is often written "dF/dX" where both F and X are vectors, which is a useful abuse of notation, and you can avoid getting in trouble by always writing arrows on your vectors (here, I have used capital letters, since no arrows on this typewriter).