Strange claim by WA involving nth derivative

96 Views Asked by At

Playing a bit around with WA i found this

Namely:

$$\frac {d^n}{d^nx} \left(\frac x{f(x)}\right)^{n+1}=x\left(\frac 1{f(x)}\right)^{n+1}(2)_n$$ For $n\in\mathbb{N_0}$ and $n+1\ne x$ and $x \ne 0$ and $x\ne\frac1{f(x)}$

Where $(a)_n$ is the pochhammer symbol.

It seems very weird to me that the n'th derivative could be expressed so simply.

Is this correct, and if so how could it be proven?

1

There are 1 best solutions below

0
On BEST ANSWER

Typing this instead

D[x/f[x],{x,n}]

returns itself, unevaluated. For specific values of $n$, say $n = 3$, we get

https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=D%5Bx%2Ff%5Bx%5D%2C%7Bx%2C3%7D%5D&asynchronous=false

so we know that the above syntax is performing the differentiation as it is intended. My experience with Wolfram|Alpha is that if you can enter an input in the Wolfram language, it is better to do so, because natural language input can be ambiguous.