Differentiation: Stationary Points Example 1

Question:

Find the maximum and minimum values of:

Answer:

a) Firstly differentiate the equation and set equal to zero to find values of x.

Though not required in this example, to determine if the value for x is a minimum or maximum value you can perform double differentiation. Sub your x value into the equation, if the result is a positive number then this represents the minimum value, a negative result will suggest a maximum value.

Now sub values for x into the original equation to find corresponding y values:

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b)

Now sub in values of x into original equation to find corresponding values of y: