The Implicit Function Theorem in the Scalar Case*

Abstract

The implicit function theorem has applications at all levels of mathematics from elementary calculus (implicit differentiation) to finding periodic solutions of systems of differential equations ([1, Chapter 14] and [4], for example).In 1961 W. S. Loud [3] studied the case of two equations in three unknowns. He considered only cases where up to third order derivatives were involved and only those cases where the derivative of the solutions at the critical point existed. Coddington and Levinson [1] consider a specific singular case involving n equations in n + m unknowns. In general the number of distinct critical cases involving up to third derivatives for such a general system is not known.