A partial differential equation contains one dependent variable and more than one independent variable. The partial derivatives of a function f(x,y) with respect to x and y at a point (x,y) are represented as ∂f/∂x and ∂f/∂y. Higher order partial derivatives can be found by taking partial derivatives multiple times with respect to the independent variables. The chain rule can be used to find partial derivatives when the dependent variable is a function of other variables that are themselves functions of the independent variables.