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Increasing and Decreasing Functions, Concavity and Inflection Points

This document discusses key concepts related to increasing and decreasing functions, concavity, and inflection points. It provides definitions and examples to illustrate how to determine if a function is increasing or decreasing based on the sign of the derivative, concave up or down based on the sign of the second derivative, and identify inflection points based on where the second derivative changes sign. Examples are worked through to find intervals where functions are increasing/decreasing and concave up/down, as well as locate local extrema and inflection points.

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109 views

Increasing and Decreasing Functions, Concavity and Inflection Points

This document discusses key concepts related to increasing and decreasing functions, concavity, and inflection points. It provides definitions and examples to illustrate how to determine if a function is increasing or decreasing based on the sign of the derivative, concave up or down based on the sign of the second derivative, and identify inflection points based on where the second derivative changes sign. Examples are worked through to find intervals where functions are increasing/decreasing and concave up/down, as well as locate local extrema and inflection points.

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Anonymous Gd16J3n7
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
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Increasing and decreasing functions, concavity

and inflection points

October 21, 2011


Class info

◮ My website: www.math.umn.edu/∼daristof/teaching.html
◮ Homework:
4.3 # 1, 3, 5, 9, 13, 19, 31, 33, 43
◮ See last Friday’s lecture notes (on my website as always) for
information on how the midterm is curved and how class grades are
computed.
◮ The last day to drop a semester class is Oct. 31, according to
http://onestop.umn.edu/calendars/index.html
(I had given the wrong date previously.)
Increasing and decreasing functions
The Mean Value Theorem leads to the following result:

Theorem (Increasing/Decreasing Test).


If f ′ (x) > 0 on an interval I , then f is increasing on I .
If f ′ (x) < 0 on an interval I , then f is decreasing on I .

f’>0 f’<0 f’>0

y=f(x)
Increasing and decreasing functions
Ex) For the function graphed below, state the open intervals on which f
is increasing/decreasing.

5
y=f(x)
4

−1

−2

−3
−1 0 1 2 3 4 5

◮ f is increasing on (0, 2) and (3, 4)


◮ f is decreasing on (−1, 0), (2, 3) and (4, 5)
Increasing and decreasing functions
Ex) The function graphed below is the derivative of the function f .
What are the open intervals on which f is increasing/decreasing?

1.5

0.5

−0.5

−1

−1.5
−2 −1.5 −1 −0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2

◮ f is increasing on (−2, 0) and on (1, 2)


◮ f is decreasing on (0, 1)
Increasing and decreasing functions
Ex) Find the open intervals on which

f (x) = 2x 3 + 3x 2 − 36x

is increasing/decreasing.
Increasing and decreasing functions (continued)
The increasing/decreasing test justifies our strategy from last time of
finding local maxima and minima of a continuous function f :

◮ Increasing/Decreasing Test:
◮ For a critical point c choose points p and q on both sides of c such
that c is the only critical point in [p, q].
◮ If f ′ (p) < 0 < f ′ (q) then there is a local minimum at x = c;
◮ If f ′ (p) > 0 > f ′ (q) then there is a local maximum at x = c.

y=f(x) local min y=f(x) local max

f’(x) < 0 f’(x) > 0 f’(x) > 0 f’(x) < 0

− + + −
c c
Concavity
Definition.
If the graph of f lies above all its tangent lines on an interval I , then it is
concave up on I .
If the graph of f lies below all its tangent lines on an interval I , then it is
concave down on I .

y=f(x) concave UP

y=f(x) concave DOWN

= tangent lines
′′
If f (x) > 0 on an interval I , then f is concave up on I .
If f ′′ (x) < 0 on an interval I , then f is concave down on I .
Concavity (continued)
Ex) For the function graphed below, state the open intervals on which f
is concave up/down.

5
y=f(x)
4

−1

−2

−3
−1 0 1 2 3 4 5

◮ f is concave up on (−1, 2)
◮ f is concave down on (3, 5)
Concavity (continued)
Ex) Find the open intervals on which

f (x) = 2x 3 + 3x 2 − 36x

is concave up/down.
Concavity (continued)
Ex) Show that
√ 1 1
x≤ + x
2 2
√
by finding the tangent line to y = x at x = 1 and using a concavity
argument.
Inflection points
Definition.
A point on the graph of a continuous function y = f (x) is called an
inflection point if the graph of f changes from concave up to concave
down, or vice-versa, at that point.

y=f(x)

inflection point

Inflection points occur when the second derivative f ′′ (x) changes sign.
Concavity (continued)
Ex) Give the x-coordinates of the inflection points of f if:
i) The graph below is f .
ii) The graph below is f ′ .
iii) The graph below is f ′′ .

−c −b −a a b c

◮ i) Inflection points are a and −a.


◮ ii) Inflection points are −b, 0 and b.
◮ iii) Inflection points are −c and c.
Inflection points (continued)
Ex) Find the inflection point(s) of

f (x) = x − sin x

for 0 ≤ x ≤ 4π. On what open interval(s) is f concave up/down?


Second Derivative Test
Recall that:
If f ′′ (x) > 0 on an interval I , then f is concave up on I .
If f ′′ (x) < 0 on an interval I , then f is concave down on I .
This leads to another way to check if a critical point corresponds to a
local maximum or minimum value of f :
◮ Second Derivative Test:
◮ Let c be a critical point. (And assume f ′′ is continuous near c.)
◮ If f ′′ (c) > 0 then there is a local minimum at x = c;
◮ If f ′′ (c) < 0 then there is a local maximum at x = c.

f’’>0 f’’<0

c c
Inflection points (continued)
Ex) Use the second derivative test to find the local maximum and
minimum value(s) of
2
f (x) = e −x .
Then state the open intervals on which f is increasing/decreasing as well
as the open intervals on which f is concave up/down.
Inflection points (continued)
1 1
For the function f (x) = 1 + x − x2 , find
i) Vertical and horizontal asyptotes;
ii) Intervals of increase/decrease;
iii) Local maxima and minima;
iv) Intervals of concavity and inflection points.
Then use all this information to graph f .

1.5

0.5

inflection point
0

−0.5

y=f(x)
−1

−1.5
−10 −8 −6 −4 −2 0 2 4 6 8 10

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