chain rule

noun

: a mathematical rule concerning the differentiation of a function of a function (such as f [u(x)]) by which under suitable conditions of continuity and differentiability one function is differentiated with respect to the second function considered as an independent variable and then the second function is differentiated with respect to its independent variable

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Honest nodes following the longest-chain rule switch to recognizing the grey and orange blocks as valid, discarding the previously official yellow and green blocks. —

Timothy B. Lee, Ars Technica, 26 Dec. 2020 The algorithm is called backpropagation because error gradients from later layers in a network are propagated backwards and used (along with the chain rule from calculus) to calculate gradients in earlier layers. —

Timothy B. Lee, Ars Technica, 18 Dec. 2018