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I am new to elliptic integrals and did not learn about them in a formal setting (I learned about them from Wikipedia and my own fiddling). I recently attempted to take the derivative of the complete elliptic integral of the first kind with respect to $k^2$ such that I was performing $$\frac{\partial K(\phi)}{\partial \phi} = \frac{\partial}{\partial \phi} \int_0^\frac{\pi}{2}\frac{d\theta}{\sqrt{1 - \phi \sin^2\theta}}$$ where $\phi = k^2$. In so doing, I arrived at the very same road block asked about in this question. The answer to this question gives a proof that the derivative can be expressed in terms of elliptic integrals of the first and second kind (which is amazing to me and I consider quite lucky). The approach of the proof was surprising and seemed to come out of nowhere. I consider myself a moderately skilled mathematician and I would never have been able to come up with such a solution, especially due to the fact that, while those integrals in the question are in fact equal, their integrands are not.

My question is very simple. Is this derivative considered a mathematical discovery that took considerable time and thought, or is it considered to be obvious? Should I feel bad that this was nowhere near obvious to me?

P.S. I was able to evaluate the integral above using the result of $\frac{\partial K(k)}{\partial k}$ from the referenced question and the fact that $$\frac{\partial K(k)}{\partial k}\Bigg\rvert_{k = \sqrt{\phi}} = \frac{\partial K(\phi)}{\partial \phi}\frac{\partial \phi}{\partial k}\Bigg\rvert_{k = \sqrt{\phi}}$$ thus $$\frac{\partial K(\phi)}{\partial \phi} = \frac{1}{2\phi}\left(\frac{E(\phi)}{1 - \phi} - K(\phi)\right)$$

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    Nice formula, but what's the question? – Angina Seng Jul 16 '19 at 16:08
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    My question is in the paragraph before the P.S. where it says "My question is simple..." – Adam Sperry Jul 16 '19 at 16:11
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    Wasn't it Gauss who came up with these methods (or was it Euler)? You don't have to feel stupid if you're not as bright as Gauss was. Or in general, you shouldn't feel stupid when learning anything new: things are never obvious on first sight, they become so after enough exposure with similar situations. – Vsotvep Jul 16 '19 at 16:15

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The specific result you asked about $$ \frac{\partial K(k)}{\partial k} = \frac{1}{2\phi}\left(\frac{E(\phi)}{1 - \phi} - K(\phi)\right) $$ is essentially DLMF equation 9.4.1 $$ \frac{\partial K(k)}{\partial k} = \frac{E(k) -k'^2 K(k)}{k\,k'^2} $$ which also appears in the Wikipedia article Elliptic integral.

The development of elliptic integrals started in the $17$th century with contributions by Landen, Fagnano and Euler. It continued into the $18$th century and extended to elliptic functions with contributions by Legendre, Gauss, Abel, Jacobi and many others. This specific result I don't consider obvious. As usual in this case, just as for integrals, it is a lot easier to check if it is correct once you have the right answer but hard to come up with the answer in the first place.

Somos
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