ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Derivative (generalizations)

A derivative is like a magic tool that helps us find out how things change. Imagine you have a toy car and you push it forward, it starts moving faster and faster. A derivative helps us understand how fast the car is going at any instant.

But a derivative is not just about cars, it can help us with anything that changes - the temperature outside, the stock market, or even your height as you grow older! It tells us how fast something is changing at a specific moment in time.

Now, there are different types of derivatives - some work with numbers like 1, 2, 3 and some work with functions like x^2, sin(x), or log(x). These are called "generalized derivatives".

The idea behind generalized derivatives is the same - to help us understand how fast something is changing. But they have slightly different rules depending on the type of function we're working with. To find the derivative of a number, we take its "derivative" and get 0, because numbers don't change. But for a function like x^2, we use a special formula to find its derivative, which turns out to be 2x.

Generalized derivatives are really useful in lots of important fields like science, engineering, and finance. By understanding how things are changing, we can make better predictions, design better machines, and make smarter investments. So, in a nutshell, derivatives help us predict how things change over time and generalized derivatives are special tools that help us do this for different types of functions.