ANALYSIS OF FUNCTIONS I: INCREASE, DECREASE, AND CONCAVITY

Although graphing utilities are useful for determining the general shape of a graph, many problems
require more precision than graphing utilities are capable of producing.

INCREASING AND DECREASING FUNCTIONS

The terms increasing, decreasing, and constant are used to describe the behavior of a function as we travel
left to right along its graph

Figure 1

DEFINITION Let f be defined on an interval, and let x1 and x2 denote points in that interval.
(a) f is increasing on the interval if f(x1) < f(x2) whenever x1 < x2.
(b) f is decreasing on the interval if f(x1) > f(x2) whenever x1 < x2.
(c) f is constant on the interval if f(x1) = f(x2) for all points x1 and x2.

Figure 2

THEOREM Let f be a function that is continuous on a closed interval [a, b] and differentiable on the open
interval (a, b).
(a) If f ′ (x) > 0 for every value of x in (a, b), then f is increasing on [a, b].
(b) If f ′ (x) < 0 for every value of x in (a, b), then f is decreasing on [a, b].
(c) If f ′ (x) = 0 for every value of x in (a, b), then f is constant on [a, b]
Example 1 Find the intervals on which f(x) = x 2 − 4x + 3 is increasing and the intervals
on which it is decreasing.

Example 2 Find the intervals on which f(x) = x 3 is increasing and the intervals on which it
is decreasing.

Example 3 Use the graph of f(x) = 3x 4 + 4x 3 − 12x 2 + 2 to make a conjecture about the
intervals on which f is increasing or decreasing.
CONCAVITY

Two ways to characterize the concavity of a differentiable function 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 its tangent
lines on that interval and is concave down if it lies below its tangent
lines.

DEFINITION If f is differentiable on an open interval, then f is said to be concave up on the open interval if
f ′ is increasing on that interval, and f is said to be concave down on the open interval if f ′ is decreasing on
that interval.

THEOREM Let f be twice differentiable on an open interval.

(a) If f ′′(x) > 0 for every value of x in the open interval, then f is concave up on that interval.
(b) If f ′′(x) < 0 for every value of x in the open interval, then f is concave down on that interval.
INFLECTION POINTS

DEFINITION If f is continuous on an open interval containing a value x0, and if f changes the direction of
its concavity at the point (x0, f(x0)), then we say that f has an inflection point at x0, and we call the point
(x0, f(x0)) on the graph of f an inflection point of f

Example 4. Use the first and second derivatives of f given the graph of the
function f(x) = x 3 − 3x 2 + 1 to determine the intervals on which f is increasing,
decreasing, concave up, and concave down. Locate all inflection points and
confirm that your conclusions are consistent with the graph.

Example 5. The figure shows the graph of the function f(x) = x + 2 sin x over
the interval [0, 2π]. Use the first and second derivatives of f to determine
where f is increasing, decreasing, concave up, and concave down. Locate
all inflection points and confirm that your conclusions are consistent with
the graph
ANALYSIS OF FUNCTIONS II: RELATIVE EXTREMA; GRAPHING POLYNOMIALS
RELATIVE MAXIMA AND MINIMA

DEFINITION A function f is said to have a relative maximum at x0 if there is an open interval containing x0 on
which f(x0) is the largest value, that is, f(x0) ≥ f(x) for all x in the interval. Similarly, f is said to have a relative
minimum at x0 if there is an open interval containing x0 on which f(x0) is the smallest value, that is, f(x0) ≤ f(x)
for all x in the interval. If f has either a relative maximum or a relative minimum at x 0, then f is said to have a
relative extremum at x0.

Example 1. Find the extrema of the following functions base on their graph
CRITICAL POINTS

THEOREM Suppose that f is a function defined on an

open interval containing the point x0. If f has a
relative extremum at x = x0, then x = x0 is a critical
point of f ; that is, either f ′ (x0) = 0 or f is not
differentiable at x0.

Example 2 Find all critical points of f(x) = x 3 − 3x + 1.

Example 3 Find all critical points of f(x) = 3x 5/3 − 15x 2/3 .

FIRST DERIVATIVE TEST

THEOREM (First Derivative Test) Suppose that f is continuous at a critical point x0.
(a) If f ′ (x) > 0 on an open interval extending left from x0 and f ′ (x) < 0 on an open interval extending
right from x0, then f has a relative maximum at x0.
(b) If f ′ (x) < 0 on an open interval extending left from x0 and f ′ (x) > 0 on an open interval extending
right from x0, then f has a relative minimum at x0.
(c) If f ′ (x) has the same sign on an open interval extending left from x0 as it does on an open interval
extending right from x0, then f does not have a relative extremum at x0

SECOND DERIVATIVE TEST

THEOREM (Second Derivative Test) Suppose that f is twice differentiable at the point x0.
(a) If f ′ (x0) = 0 and f ′′(x0) > 0, then f has a relative minimum at x0.
(b) If f ′ (x0) = 0 and f ′′(x0) < 0, then f has a relative maximum at x0.
(c) If f ′ (x0) = 0 and f ′′(x0) = 0, then the test is inconclusive; that is, f may have a relative maximum, a
relative minimum, or neither at x0

Example Find the relative extrema of f(x) = 3x 5 − 5x 3 .

ABSOLUTE MAXIMA AND MINIMA

DEFINITION Consider an interval in the domain of a function f and a point x0 in that interval. We say that f has
an absolute maximum at x0 if f(x) ≤ f(x0) for all x in the interval, and we say that f has an absolute minimum at
x0 if f(x0) ≤ f(x) for all x in the interval. We say that f has an absolute extremum at x0 if it has either an absolute
maximum or an absolute minimum at that point.

THE EXTREME VALUE THEOREM

THEOREM (Extreme-Value Theorem) If a function f is continuous on a finite closed interval [a, b], then f has
both an absolute maximum and an absolute minimum on [a, b].

A Procedure for Finding the Absolute Extrema of a Continuous Function f on a Finite Closed Interval [a, b]
Step 1. Find the critical points of f in (a, b).
Step 2. Evaluate f at all the critical points and at the endpoints a and b.
Step 3. The largest of the values in Step 2 is the absolute maximum value of f on [a, b] and the
smallest value is the absolute minimum

Example 1 Find the absolute maximum and minimum values of the function f(x) = 2x 3 − 15x 2 + 36x on the
interval [1, 5], and determine where these values occur.

Example 2 Find the absolute extrema of f(x) = 6x 4/3 − 3x 1/3 on the interval [−1, 1], and determine where
these values occur.
Example 3. Determine by inspection whether p(x) = 3x 4 + 4x 3 has any absolute extrema. If so, find them
and state where they occur

1
Example 4. Determine whether the function 𝑓(𝑥) = 𝒙𝟐 −𝟏 has any absolute
extrema on the interval (0, 1). If so, find them and state where they occur.
APPLIED MAXIMUM AND MIMIMUM PROBLEMS
CLASSIFICATION OF OPTIMIZATION PROBLEMS
The applied optimization problems that we will consider in this section fall into the following two
categories:
• Problems that reduce to maximizing or minimizing a continuous function over a finite closed
interval.
• Problems that reduce to maximizing or minimizing a continuous function over an infinite interval
or a finite interval that is not closed

A Procedure for Solving Applied Maximum and Minimum Problems

Step 1. Draw an appropriate figure and label the quantities relevant to the problem.
Step 2. Find a formula for the quantity to be maximized or minimized.
Step 3. Using the conditions stated in the problem to eliminate variables, express the quantity to be
maximized or minimized as a function of one variable.
Step 4. Find the interval of possible values for this variable from the physical restrictions in the
problem.
Step 5. If applicable, use the techniques of the preceding section to obtain the maximum or minimum.

Example 1 A garden is to be laid out in a rectangular area and protected by a chicken wire fence. What is
the largest possible area of the garden if only 100 running feet of chicken wire is available for the fence?

Example 2 An open box is to be made from a 16-inch by 30-inch piece of cardboard by cutting out squares
of equal size from the four corners and bending up the sides. What size should the squares be to obtain a
box with the largest volume?
Example 3 An offshore oil well located at a point W that is 5 km from the closest point A on a straight
shoreline. Oil is to be piped from W to a shore point B that is 8 km from A by piping it on a straight line
under water from W to some shore point P between A and B and then on to B via pipe along the shoreline.
If the cost of laying pipe is $1,000,000/km under water and $500,000/km over land, where should the point
P be located to minimize the cost of laying the pipe?

Example 4 Find the radius and height of the right circular cylinder of largest volume that can be inscribed in
a right circular cone with radius 6 inches and height 10 inches

Example 5 A closed cylindrical can is to hold 1 liter (1000 cm3 ) of liquid. How should we choose the height
and radius to minimize the amount of material needed to manufacture the can?

Example 6 Find a point on the curve y = x 2 that is closest to the point (18, 0).
AN APPLICATION TO ECONOMICS
Three functions of importance to an economist or a manufacturer are
C(x) = total cost of producing x units of a product during some time period
R(x) = total revenue from selling x units of the product during the time period
P(x) = total profit obtained by selling x units of the product during the time period
These are called, respectively, the cost function, revenue function, and profit function. If all units produced
are sold, then these are related by

The total cost C(x) of producing x units can be expressed as a sum

It is shown in economics that with suitable simplifying assumptions, M(x) can be expressed in the form

where b and c are constants. Substituting this yields

If a manufacturing firm can sell all the items it produces for p peso apiece, then its total revenue R(x) (in
peso) will be

and its total profit P(x) (in peso) will be

Example 7 A liquid form of antibiotic manufactured by a pharmaceutical firm 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 + 0.003x 2 and if the
production capacity of the firm is at most 30,000 units in a specified time, how many units of antibiotic
must be manufactured and sold in that time to maximize the profit?