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Concavity: F/left (X /right) Yf (X) y F/left (X /right) Yf (X) y

The document discusses three key concepts related to the curvature of graphs: 1) Concavity refers to whether a graph curves upward or downward, which can be determined by comparing a secant line between two points to the curve between those points. 2) An inflection point is where a graph changes from being concave up to concave down or vice versa, which also means the first derivative changes from increasing to decreasing or vice versa. 3) The second derivative test can determine if a point where the first derivative is zero is a maximum or minimum by checking if the second derivative is positive or negative at that point.

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25 views

Concavity: F/left (X /right) Yf (X) y F/left (X /right) Yf (X) y

The document discusses three key concepts related to the curvature of graphs: 1) Concavity refers to whether a graph curves upward or downward, which can be determined by comparing a secant line between two points to the curve between those points. 2) An inflection point is where a graph changes from being concave up to concave down or vice versa, which also means the first derivative changes from increasing to decreasing or vice versa. 3) The second derivative test can determine if a point where the first derivative is zero is a maximum or minimum by checking if the second derivative is positive or negative at that point.

Uploaded by

Anooshay
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Concavity

Although the first derivative test determines if a function is increasing or decreasing, we


would also like to know if the shape of the graph is curving upward or downward. This
notion of curvature of a graph upward or downward is known as concavity.

If the secant line passing through the points (x1, f(x1)) and (x2, f(x2)) is above the
curve f\left( x \right)=yf(x)=y between these two points, then f(x) is concave up.

If the secant line passing through the points (x1, f(x1)) and x2, f(x2) is below the
curve f\left( x \right)=yf(x)=y between these two points, then f(x) is concave up.

Inflection points
A point (c, f(c)) is said to be an inflection point for a point c in (a, b) and for a continuous
function f(x) in (a, b) if the graph of y=f\left( x\right)y=f(x) changes concavity at (c,
f(c)).

This also implies that the first derivative changes from increasing to decreasing or decreasing
to increasing at (c, f(c)).

Second derivative test


While the first derivative test helps us identify the points of local extrema, it does not tell us
the nature of the points. The second derivative test helps us identify if these points are
maxima or minima. Suppose f is a twice differentiable function in an interval I, and c is a
point in (a, b) and f'\left( c\right){\rm{\;}} = 0f′(c)=0 , then

 c is a local maxima if f’’(c) is greater than zero.


 c is a local minima if f’’(c) is lesser than zero.

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