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Let c be an element of the domain D of a function f .
e value f (c) is an absolute/global maximum value of f on D precisely when f (x)
f (c) for all x in D.
e value f (c) is an absolute/global minimum value of f on D precisely when f (x)
f (c) for all x in D.
e value f (c) is a local maximum value of f near c precisely when f (x) f (c) for
all x in D restricted to some open interval containing c.
e value f (c) is a local minimum value of f near c precisely when f (x) f (c) for
all x in D restricted to some open interval containing c.
Near c means for all elements in the domain restricted to some open interval containing c.
Extremum means maximum or minimum, and similarly extreme value means either maximum
value or minimum value.
Lxample . Draw some pictures for global/local extremum. Look at sin x with infinitely
many local maxima and minima, which in this case are global extrema. Look at x with no
local maximum nor minimum. Look at x

which has a maximum but no minimum. Look

at x

which has a minimum but no maximum. Look at

x
which has no local maximum nor
minimum. Look at x

restricted to [, ], which has a global minimum at the endpoint

.
Teorem (Lxtreme Value Teorem). Assume that f [a, b] R is continuous. en f
attains an absolute minimum value f (c) and an absolute maximum value f (d) for some
numbers c and d in [a, b].
Note . e maximum or minimum value guaranteed by the extreme value theorem might be
obtained at multiple points in [a, b].
Lxample a. e function x does not attain a maximum or a minimum value on the interval
(, ). (Not closed interval.) e function [, ] R defined by x for x nonzero and
for x = does not attain a maximum nor minimum value. (Not continuous.)
Lxample ,. e constant function attains both a maximum and a minimum value on the
interval (, ) even though the interval is not closed. e function R R that is on
irrational numbers and on irrational numbers is not continuous (anywhere) yet it attains
both its maximum and minimum value. (e Extreme Value eorem does not say anything
in these cases. e function might or might not attain its extreme values.)

e Extreme Value eorem is nonconstructive: does not say where the extreme values
occur.
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Intuitively, the graph of a function has a horizontal tangent at any interior extremum.
Teorem a (Iermats Teorem). If f has a local maximum or minimum at c, then either
f

(c) does not exist or ( f

(c) exists and) f

(c) = .
We define a critical number of f to be a number c in the domain of f such that either
f

(c) does not exist or f

(c) = . (Sometimes we distinguish the case f

(c) = by calling c
a stationary number.) erefore we can restate Fermats eorem as:
Teorem , (Iermats Teorem). If f has a local maximum or minimum at c, then c is a
critical number of f .
Pvoov. Assume f has a local minimumat c. (e other case follows similarly or by considering
the negative of the given function.) If f

(c) does not exist, then c is a critical number of f .
Assume now that f

(c) exists. By assumption f has a local minimum at c so there is >
such that f (x) f (c) whenever x is in (c , c + ). en for x in (c , c)
f (x) f (c)
x c

for x in (c, c + )
f (x) f (c)
x c

because in both cases the numerator is nonnegative while in the first case the denominator is
negative while in the second case the denominator is positive. erefore by the comparison
theorem:
lim
xc

f (x) f (c)
x c

and:
lim
xc
+
f (x) f (c)
x c

e two limits must be equal and so their common value f

(c) must equal .

us we can find all possible local extreme values by checking all critical numbers.
Lxample . Find the critical numbers of x, x

, x

and classify each as corresponding to a local

maximum, local minimum, or neither.

. Q/c/a/ xtreme Ya/ues

One main technique to find global extreme values on closed intervals is called the closed
interval method. e technique involves checking all of the critical points. Remember that
automatically endpoints are critical points.
e closed interval method to find the absolute maximum and minimum values of a
continuous function f on a closed interval [a, b].
Find the critical numbers of f in [a, b].
For each of these critical numbers (including the endpoints a and b), find the corre-
sponding value of f .
e largest and smallest values from the previous step are respectively the global maxi-
mum and minimum values.
Lxample , (.a, ). Find the absolute maximum and absolute minimum values of the func-
tion f (x) = + x x

on the interval [, ].
SoiU:iow. f () = , f () =

Lxample e (.a, -). Find the absolute maximum and absolute minimum values of the
function f (x) = t

on the interval [, ].
SoiU:iow. f (

) = , f () =