How do you find the stationary points of a function?

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Answer 1 · 2018-06-26T12:05:31

Shown below

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As we can see from this image, a stationary point is a point on a curve where the slop is zero

Hence the stationary points are when the derivative is zero

Hence to find the stationary point of $y = f(x)$ , find $(dy)/(dx)$ and then set it equal to zero

$=> (dy)/(dx) = 0$

Then solve this equation, to find the values of $x$ for what the function is stationary

For examples

$y= x^2 + 3x +8$

To find the stationary find $(dy)/(dx)$

$(dy)/(dx) = 2x + 3$

Set it to zero

$2x+3 = 0$

Solve

$x = -3/2 => y= 23/4$

Hence the stationary point of this function is at $(-3/2 , 23/4 )$