Laplacian
∇²
Type it
| Unicode | U+2207 U+00B2 | |
|---|---|---|
| LaTeX | \nabla^2 | |
| HTML entity | ∇² | |
| Character | ∇² |
Meaning
The sum of a function's second partial derivatives, one for each variable. It is the divergence of the gradient, and is also written Δ. Compare with Nabla and Partial Derivative.
How to read it
∇²f = ∂²f/∂x² + ∂²f/∂y²
is read “the Laplacian of f equals the second partial of f with respect to x plus the second partial of f with respect to y”.