Gradient

In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar field is a vector field that points in the direction of the greatest rate of increase of the scalar field, and whose magnitude is that rate of increase. In simple terms, the variation in space of any quantity can be represented (e.g. graphically) by a slope. The gradient represents the steepness and direction of that slope.

A generalization of the gradient for functions on a Euclidean space that have values in another Euclidean space is the Jacobian. A further generalization for a function from one Banach space to another is the Fréchet derivative.