Let $\mathcal{D}$ be a disk in $\mathbf{R}^{2}$. This exercise shows that if $$ \nabla f(x, y)=0 $$ for all $(x, y)$ in $\mathcal{D},$ then $f$ is constant. Consider points $P=(a, b)$, $Q=(c, d),$ and $R=(c, b)$ as in Figure $16 .$
(a) Use single-variable calculus to show that $f$ is constant along the segments $\overline{P R}$ and $\overline{R Q}$
(b) Conclude that $f(P)=f(Q)$ for any two points $P, Q \in \mathcal{D}$.