Function of several real variables

In mathematical analysis and its applications, a function of several real variables or real multivariate function is a function with more than one argument, with all arguments being real variables. This concept extends the idea of a function of a real variable to several variables. The "input" variables take real values, while the "output", also called the "value of the function", may be real or complex. However, the study of the complex-valued functions may be easily reduced to the study of the real-valued functions, by considering the real and imaginary parts of the complex function; therefore, unless explicitly specified, only real-valued functions will be considered in this article.

The domain of a function of n variables is the subset of ⁠${\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{n}}$⁠ for which the function is defined. As usual, the domain of a function of several real variables is supposed to contain a nonempty open subset of ⁠${\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{n}}$⁠.

General definition

n = 1

n = 2

n = 3

Functions f(x₁, x₂, …, x_n) of n variables, plotted as graphs in the space R^{n + 1}. The domains are the red n-dimensional regions, the images are the purple n-dimensional curves.