If y=f(x) is differentiable on an interval, its derivative dxdy=f′(x) is itself a function of x, and if that function is differentiable too, its derivative is called the second derivative, written f′′(x), y′′, or dx2d2y. Differentiating again gives the third derivative, and in general the n-th derivative f(n)(x)=dxndny is obtained by differentiating f(x) exactly n times; these are collectively called higher order derivatives. A useful fact: if f(x) is a polynomial of degree n, its n-th derivative is a nonzero constant and every derivative after that is zero. For functions given parametrically (x=f(t), y=g(t)) or implicitly, the second derivative is found by first computing dy/dx as a function of the parameter (or of x and y), and then differentiating that expression once more with respect to x — which, for a parametric curve, means differentiating dy/dx with respect to t and dividing by dx/dt again.