Past exam of the options I course of the University of Oxford / 2004 / F / F1 / Solution

The total derivative is the unique linear map $D{f}_a:{\mathbb{R}}^m\to {\mathbb{R}}^n$ satisfyingThis describes the best first-order linear approximation without choosing coordinates. The chain rule isThe evaluation point $f(a)$ in the outer derivative matters, particularly when composing a quadratic matrix map with the exponential.