How to find maxima, minima, and critical points of #4x^5 -7x^3 +x#?

#h(x)= 4x^5-7x^3+x#

1 Answer
Mar 20, 2018

See below.

Explanation:

To find critical point we first have to find the first derivative of #h(x)#.

Derivative:

Using the power rule:

#d/dx(ax^n)=anx^(n-1)#

Since the derivative is distributive over the sum, we can use this on each term of the function:

#d/dx(4x^5-7x^3+x)=(5)4x^(5-1) +(3)(-7)x^(3-1)+(1)x^(1-1)#

#=20x^4-21x^2+1#

Maximum/minimum and some inflection point have a gradient of zero. We can find these by equating the derivative to zero:

#20x^4-21x^2+1=0#

Let #z=x^2#, then:

#20z^2-21z+1=0#

Factor:

#(20z-1)(z-1)=0=>z=1/20 and z=1#

But:

#z=x^2#

#:.#

#x^2=1/20=>x=sqrt(5)/10 and x=-sqrt(5)/10#

#x^2=1=>x=1 and x=-1#

We now need to test these value to identify whether they are max/min or inflection points. We know that if:

#f'' > 0 \ \ \ \ \ \ # minimum point.

#f'' < 0\ \ \ \ \ \ # maximum point.

#f''=0\ \ \ \ \ \ # maximum/minimum or point of inflection

This would have to be tested using the first derivative.

The second derivative of #h(x)# is just the derivative of the first derivative. So:

#(d^2)/dx^2(h(x))=d/dx(20x^4-21x^2+1)=80x^3-42x#

Testing values in the derivative:

#x=sqrt(5)/10#

#80(sqrt(5)/10)^3-42(sqrt(5)/10)<0#

#color(blue)(x=sqrt(5)/10) \ \ \ \ \ \ \ # Maximum point

#x=-sqrt(5)/10#

#80(-sqrt(5)/10)^3-42(-sqrt(5)/10)>0#

#color(blue)(x=-sqrt(5)/10) \ \ \ \ \ \ # Minimum point

#x=1#

#80(1)^3-42(1)>0 #

#color(blue)(x=1) \ \ \ \ \ #Minimum point

#x=-1#

#80(-1)^3-42(-1)< 0#

#color(blue)(x=-1) \ \ \ \ \ # Maximum point

We can find inflection points using the second derivative. The function is convex where the second derivative is #>0# and concave where it is #<0#. The concavity changes at points of inflection.

#:.#

#80x^3-42x>0#

#x(80x^2-42)>0#

#(-sqrt(210)/20,0)uu(0,oo)#

#80x^3-42x<0#

#x(80x^2-42)<0#

#(-oo,0)uu(0,sqrt(210)/20)#

We can see from this that there are inflection points at:

#color(blue)(x=0 ,x=(sqrt(210))/20 , x=-(sqrt(210))/20#

GRAPH:

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