Scribd
Upload
353 views

Lesson 17-Analysis of Functions I Increasing, Decreasing and Concavity

This document discusses analyzing functions by examining their increasing/decreasing behavior and concavity. It defines: - Increasing/decreasing functions based on the sign of the tangent slope. - Concavity based on whether the tangent slopes are increasing (concave up) or decreasing (concave down). - Inflection points as where the concavity changes from up to down or vice versa. Graphs and theorems are provided to illustrate these concepts.

Uploaded by

Wayne Casanova
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
353 views

Lesson 17-Analysis of Functions I Increasing, Decreasing and Concavity

This document discusses analyzing functions by examining their increasing/decreasing behavior and concavity. It defines: - Increasing/decreasing functions based on the sign of the tangent slope. - Concavity based on whether the tangent slopes are increasing (concave up) or decreasing (concave down). - Inflection points as where the concavity changes from up to down or vice versa. Graphs and theorems are provided to illustrate these concepts.

Uploaded by

Wayne Casanova
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 13

Lesson 17

Analysis of Functions I:
Increasing, Decreasing and
Concavity
OBJECTIVES:
•to define increasing and decreasing functions;
•to define concavity and direction of bending that is
concave upward or concave downward; and
•to determine the point of inflection.
INCREASING and DECREASING
FUNCTIONS
The term increasing, decreasing, and constant are used to
describe the behavior of a function as we travel left to right
along its graph. An example is shown below.

increasing decreasing increasing constant

0 2 4
The following definition, which is illustrated in Figure
4.1.2, expresses these intuitive ideas precisely.
y y

 


x x
Each tangent line Each tangent line
has positive slope; y has negative slope;
function is increasing function is decreasing
 

x
Each tangent line
Has zero slope,
function is constant
CONCAVITY

Although the sign of the derivative of f reveals where the graph of f is


increasing or decreasing , it does not reveal the direction of the
curvature.
Figure 4.1.8 suggests two ways to characterize the concavity
of a differentiable f on an open interval:

• f is concave up on an open interval if its tangent lines have increasing


slopes on that interval and is concave down if they have decreasing
slopes.
• f is concave up on an open interval if its graph lies above the its
tangent line and concave down if it lies below its tangent lines.
y y


   
concave up

   
concave down

x x
increasing slopes decreasing slopes
Formal definition of the “concave up” and “concave
down” .
Since the slopes of the tangent lines to the graph of a differentiable
function f are the values of its derivative f’, it follows from Theorem
4.1.2 (applied to f’ rather than f ) that f’ will be increasing on intervals
where f’’ is positive and that f’ will be decreasing on intervals where
f’’ is negative. Thus we have the following theorem.
INFLECTION
POINTS
Points where the curve changes from concave up to
concave down or vice-versa are called points of
inflection.

You might also like