Finding Maxima and Minima - High School Math

Card 0 of 2

Question

Consider the function

Find the maximum of the function on the interval .

Answer

Notice that on the interval , the term is always less than or equal to . So the function is largest at the points when . This occurs at and .

Plugging in either 1 or 0 into the original function yields the correct answer of 0.

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Question

The function is such that

When you take the second derivative of the function , you obtain

What can you conclude about the function at ?

Answer

We have a point at which . We know from the second derivative test that if the second derivative is negative, the function has a maximum at that point. If the second derivative is positive, the function has a minimum at that point. If the second derivative is zero, the function has an inflection point at that point.

Plug in 0 into the second derivative to obtain

So the point is an inflection point.

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