Concavity and Curve Sketching

DEFINITION
The graph of a dierentiable function y = f (x) is
• concave up on an open interval I if f 0 is increasing on I .
• concave down on an open interval I if f 0 is decreasing on I.

Second Derivative Test for Concavity

Let y = f (x) be twice-dierentiable on an interval I
• If f 00 > 0 on I, the graph of f over I is concave up.
• If f 00 < 0 on I, the graph of f over I is concave down.

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Example
Find the intervals on which f (x) = x2 − 4x + 3 is increasing and the intervals on which it is decreasing.

Example
Determine the concavity of y = 3 + sin x on [0, 2π]

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 Point of Inection
DEFINITION
A point where the graph of a function has a tangent line and where the concavity changes is a point of inection.
DEFINITION
At a point of inection (c, f (c)), either f 00 (c) = 0 or f 00 (c) fails to exist.

Example
The function f (x) = xe−x has an inection point. Use the rst and second derivatives of f to determine the intervals
on which f is increasing, decreasing, concave up, and concave down. Locate all inection points.

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Second Derivative Test for Local Extrema
Suppose f 00 is continuous on an open interval that contains x = c
• If f 0 (c) = 0 and f 00 (c) < 0, then f has a local maximum at x = c
• If f 0 (c) = 0 and f 00 (c) > 0, then f has a local minimum at x = c.
• If f 0 (c) = 0 and f 00 (c) = 0, then the test fails. The function f may have a local maximum, a local minimum, or
neither.

Example
Consider the function f (x) = x3 − 3x2 + 1. Use the rst and second derivatives of f to determine the intervals on which
f is increasing, decreasing, concave up, and concave down. Locate all inection points.

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Summary
The following gure summarizes the things we learned

Figure 1: summary

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 Indeterminate Forms and L'hopital's Rule
Indeterminate Form 0/0
THEOREM
Suppose that f (a) = g(a) = 0, that f and g are dierentiable on an open interval I containing a, and that g 0 (x) 6= 0 on
I if x 6= a. Then
f (x) f 0 (x)
lim = lim 0
x→a g(x) x→a g (x)

assuming that the limit on the right side of this equation exists.
Suppose that we have an indeterminate form of type 0/0 in which f 0 and g 0 are continuous at x = a and g 0 (a) 6= 0. since
f and g can be closely approximated by their local linear approximations near a, it is reasonable to expect that

f (x) f (a) + f 0 (a)(x − a)

lim = lim
x→a g(x) x→a g(a) + g 0 (a)(x − a)

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Example
In each part conrm that the limit is an indeterminate form of type 0/0 and evaluate it using L'Hôpital's rule.
• (a) limx→0 sin 2x
x
• (b) limx→π/2 1−sin
cos x
x

• (c)
x
limx→0 e x−1
3

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 Indeterminate Forms ∞/∞, ∞ · 0, ∞ − ∞

Theorem for Form ∞/∞

Suppose that f and g are dierentiable functions on an open interval containing x = a, except possibly at x = a, and
that
lim f (x) = ∞ and lim g(x) = ∞
x→a x→a

If limx→a [f 0 (x)/g 0 (x)] exists, or if this limit is +∞ or −∞, then

f (x) f 0 (x)
lim = lim 0
x→a g(x) x→a g (x)

Moreover, this statement is also true in the case of a limit as x → a− , x → a+ , x → −∞ or as x → +∞

EXAMPLE
Find the limits of these ∞/∞ forms:
sec x
• limx→π/2 1+tan x

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 Indeterminate Powers

Theorem
If limx→a ln f (x) = L, then
lim f (x) = lim eln f (x) = eL
x→a x→a

Here a may be either nite or innite.

Example
Apply L'Hôpital's Rule to show that limx→0+ (1 + x)1/x = e

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 Applied Optimization
Example
Suppose that r(x) = 9x and c(x) = x3 − 6x2 + 15x, where x represents millions of MP3 players produced. Is there a
production level that maximizes prot? If so, what is it?

Example
A liquid form of antibiotic manufactured by a pharmaceutical rm is sold in bulk at a price of $200 per unit. If the total
production cost (in dollars) for x units is
C(x) = 500, 000 + 80x + 0.003x2

and if the production capacity of the rm is at most 30, 000 units in a specied time, how many units of antibiotic must
be manufactured and sold in that time to maximize the prot?

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Example
It costs you c dollars each to manufacture and distribute backpacks. If the backpacks sell at x dollars each, the number
sold is given by
a
n= + b(100 − x)
x−c
where a and b are positive constants. What selling price will bring a maximum prot?

Example (Wilson lot size formula)

One of the formulas for inventory management says that the average weekly cost of ordering, paying for, and holding
merchandise is
km hq
A(q) = + cm +
q 2
where q is the quantity you order when things run low (shoes, radios, brooms, or whatever the item might be), k is
the cost of placing an order (the same, no matter how often you order), c is the cost of one item (a constant), m is
the number of items sold each week (a constant), and h is the weekly holding cost per item (a constant that takes into
account things such as space, utilities, insurance, and security).
• Your job, as the inventory manager for your store, is to nd the quantity that will minimize A(q). What is it? (The
formula you get for the answer is called the Wilson lot size formula.)
• Shipping costs sometimes depend on order size. When they do, it is more realistic to replace k by k + bq, the sum
of k and a constant multiple of q. What is the most economical quantity to order now?

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 Antiderivatives
Denition
A function F is an antiderivative of f on an interval I if F 0 (x) = f (x) for all x in I .
Example
Find an antiderivative for each of the following functions.
• f (x) = 2x
• g(x) = cos x
1
• h(x) = x + 2e2x

Theorem
If F is an antiderivative of f on an interval I , then the most general antiderivative of f on I is
F (x) + C

where C is an arbitrary constant.

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AntiDerivative Formulas
Some antiderivatives are in the table

Indenite Integrals
The collection of all antiderivatives of f is called the indenite integral of f with respect to x, and is denoted by
Z
f (x)dx

The symbol is an integral sign. The function f is the integrand of the integral, and x is the variable of integration.
R

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Example
Evaluate Z
x2 − 2x + 5 dx

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