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up vote 3 down vote favorite Is it possible to do some kind of simplifications on an expression like $$ f : x, y to mathbb{R} \ frac{frac{partial^2 f}{partial y^2}}{frac{partial f}{partial y}} = frac{partial f}{partial y} $$ So that $frac{partial f}{partial y}$ in the denominator reduces $frac{partial^2 f}{partial y^2}$ to $frac{partial f}{partial y}$ like $frac{a^2}{a}=a$ , without knowing the function $f$ . I would say no, that's not allowed, but I'm just wondering. Thank you. partial-derivative share | cite | improve this question asked Nov 26 at 22:56 WolfgangP 162 5