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1MaximumandMinimumValues
Someofthemostimportantapplicationsofcalculusare
optimizationproblems,inwhichwearerequiredtofindthe
optimal(best)wayofdoingsomething,suchasinthe
exampleslistedonp.203ofyourbook.Allofthese
problemsinvolvefindingamaximumorminimumvalueof
afunction.Youcanseewherethemaxandminareonthe
graphinfigure1,andaformaldefinitionfollows.
Anabsolutemaximumorminimumcanalsobecalledaglobalmaxormin.
Bothofthesearecalledextremevaluesoff.Inadditiontohavingan
absolutemaximumorminimumonagraph,youcanalsohavealocal
maximumorminimum,asseeninfigure2.
Note that f(d) is both an absolute max and a local max, but
f(a) is only an absolute min, NOT a local min. An endpoint
of a graph cannot be a local extremum, since there is no
open interval around it to compare it with.
1
Usethegraphsbelowtodeterminetheabsoluteandlocalmaximumand
minimumvaluesofeachfunction.
Sketchthegraphofafunctionfthatiscontinuouson[0,6]andhasthe
givenproperties.
Absoluteminimumat1,absolutemaximumat5,localmaximumat2,local
minimumat4.
2
Considerthefunctions
Clearly,somefunctionshaveextremevalues,whileothersdonot.Thefollowing
theoremgivesconditionsunderwhichfunctionsareguaranteedtohaveextreme
values:
Thistheoremdoesnottellushowtofindtheseextremevalues,however,soweuse
anideathatwehavediscussedbefore.Notethatatlocalmaximumandminimum
points,theslopeofthetangentlineis0.ThisisguaranteedinFermat'sTheorem.
Note,however,thattheconverseisnottrue.Justbecausef'(c)=0doesnot
guaranteethatf(c)isalocalextrema,asweseeinthecaseoff(x)=x3.Thisdoes
giveusastartingpoint,though.Also,ifthederivativedoesnotexistatapoint,there
couldbeanextremevalue,asinthecaseoff(x)=|x|.
3
Sketchthegraphoffbyhandanduseyoursketchtofindanyabsoluteandlocal
maximumandminimumvaluesoff.
4
Intermsofcriticalnumbers,Fermat'sTheoremcanberephrasedasfollows:
Iffhasalocalmaximumorminimumatc,thencisacriticalnumber.
So,whenwe'relookingforextrema,weneedtostartbyfindingthesecriticalnumbers,
whichmeansthatourfirststepistotakethederivative.
Examples:Findthecriticalnumbersforeachofthefollowingfunctions:
f(x)=5x23x+7 f(x)=x2lnx
5
f(x)=x2/5(4x+7)
6
Tofindtheabsolutemaxorminofacontinuousfunction,itmusteitherbeatalocal
maxormin(inwhichcaseitoccursatacriticalnumber)oritoccursatanendpoint
oftheinterval.Thusthefollowingthreestepprocedurealwaysworks:
Examples:Findtheabsolutemaximumandminimumvaluesofeachof
thefollowingfunctionsonthegivenintervals:
f(x)=2x23x+7[3,5] f(x)=5+54x2x3[0,4]
7
f(x)=(x21)3[1,2]