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Calculus I (Notes) / Applications of Derivatives / Critical Points [Notes] [Practice Problems ] [Assignment Problems]

CALCULUS I - NOTES

Derivatives Previous Chapter Next Chapter Integrals

Rates of Change Previous Section Next Section Minimum and Maximum Values

Critical Points
Critical points will show up throughout a majority of this chapter so we first need to define them and work a
few examples before getting into the sections that actually use them.

Definition
We say that is a critical point of the function f(x) if exists and if either of the following are true.

Note that we require that exists in order for to actually be a critical point. This is an important,
and often overlooked, point.

The main point of this section is to work some examples finding critical points. So, lets work some
examples.

Example 1 Determine all the critical points for the function.

Solution
We first need the derivative of the function in order to find the critical points and so lets get that and
notice that well factor it as much as possible to make our life easier when we go to find the critical
points.

Now, our derivative is a polynomial and so will exist everywhere. Therefore the only critical points will be
those values of x which make the derivative zero. So, we must solve.

Because this is the factored form of the derivative its pretty easy to identify the three critical points.
They are,

Polynomials are usually fairly simple functions to find critical points for provided the degree doesnt get so
large that we have trouble finding the roots of the derivative.

Most of the more interesting functions for finding critical points arent polynomials however. So lets take
a look at some functions that require a little more effort on our part.

Example 2 Determine all the critical points for the function.

Solution
To find the derivative its probably easiest to do a little simplification before we actually differentiate.
Lets multiply the root through the parenthesis and simplify as much as possible. This will allow us to
avoid using the product rule when taking the derivative.

Now differentiate.
We will need to be careful with this problem. When faced with a negative exponent it is often best to
eliminate the minus sign in the exponent as we did above. This isnt really required but it can make our
life easier on occasion if we do that.

Notice as well that eliminating the negative exponent in the second term allows us to correctly identify
why is a critical point for this function. Once we move the second term to the denominator we can
clearly see that the derivative doesnt exist at and so this will be a critical point. If you dont get rid
of the negative exponent in the second term many people will incorrectly state that is a critical point
because the derivative is zero at . While this may seem like a silly point, after all in each case is
identified as a critical point, it is sometimes important to know why a point is a critical point. In fact, in a
couple of sections well see a fact that only works for critical points in which the derivative is zero.

So, weve found one critical point (where the derivative doesnt exist), but we now need to determine
where the derivative is zero (provided it is of course). To help with this its usually best to combine the
two terms into a single rational expression. So, getting a common denominator and combining gives us,

Notice that we still have as a critical point. Doing this kind of combining should never lose critical
points, its only being done to help us find them. As we can see its now become much easier to quickly
determine where the derivative will be zero. Recall that a rational expression will only be zero if its
numerator is zero (and provided the denominator isnt also zero at that point of course).
So, in this case we can see that the numerator will be zero if and so there are two critical points for
this function.

Example 3 Determine all the critical points for the function.

Solution
Well leave it to you to verify that using the quotient rule we get that the derivative is,

Notice that we factored a -1 out of the numerator to help a little with finding the critical points. This
negative out in front will not affect the derivative whether or not the derivative is zero or not exist but will
make our work a little easier.

Now, we have two issues to deal with. First the derivative will not exist if there is division by zero in the
denominator. So we need to solve,

We didnt bother squaring this since if this is zero, then zero squared is still zero and if it isnt zero then
squaring it wont make it zero.

So, we can see from this that the derivative will not exist at and . However, these are NOT
critical points since the function will also not exist at these points. Recall that in order for a point to be a
critical point the function must actually exist at that point.

At this point we need to be careful. The numerator doesnt factor, but that doesnt mean that there arent
any critical points where the derivative is zero. We can use the quadratic formula on the numerator to
determine if the fraction as a whole is ever zero.

So, we get two critical points. Also, these are not nice integers or fractions. This will happen on
occasion. Dont get too locked into answers always being nice. Often they arent.

Note as well that we only use real numbers for critical points. So, if upon solving the quadratic in the
numerator, we had gotten complex number these would not have been considered critical points.

Summarizing, we have two critical points. They are,

Again, remember that while the derivative doesnt exist at and neither does the function and so
these two points are not critical points for this function.

So far all the examples have not had any trig functions, exponential functions, etc. in them. We shouldnt
expect that to always be the case. So, lets take a look at some examples that dont just involve powers of x.

Example 4 Determine all the critical points for the function.

Solution
First get the derivative and dont forget to use the chain rule on the second term.

Now, this will exist everywhere and so there wont be any critical points for which the derivative doesnt
exist. The only critical points will come from points that make the derivative zero. We will need to solve,

Solving this equation gives the following.

Dont forget the 2 n on these! There will be problems down the road in which we will miss solutions
without this! Also make sure that it gets put on at this stage! Now divide by 3 to get all the critical points
for this function.

Notice that in the previous example we got an infinite number of critical points. That will happen on
occasion so dont worry about it when it happens.

Example 5 Determine all the critical points for the function.

Solution
Heres the derivative for this function.

Now, this looks unpleasant, however with a little factoring we can clean things up a little as follows,

This function will exist everywhere and so no critical points will come from that. Determining where this
is zero is easier than it looks. We know that exponentials are never zero and so the only way the
derivative will be zero is if,

We will have two critical points for this function.

Example 6 Determine all the critical points for the function.

Solution
Before getting the derivative lets notice that since we cant take the log of a negative number or zero we
 will only be able to look at .

The derivative is then,

Now, this derivative will not exist if x is a negative number or if , but then again neither will the
function and so these are not critical points. Remember that the function will only exist if and nicely
enough the derivative will also only exist if and so the only thing we need to worry about is where the
derivative is zero.

First note that, despite appearances, the derivative will not be zero for . As noted above the derivative
doesnt exist at because of the natural logarithm and so the derivative cant be zero there!

So, the derivative will only be zero if,

Recall that we can solve this by exponentiating both sides.

There is a single critical point for this function.

Lets work one more problem to make a point.

Example 7 Determine all the critical points for the function.

Solution
Note that this function is not much different from the function used in Example 5. In this case the
derivative is,

This function will never be zero for any real value of x. The exponential is never zero of course and the
polynomial will only be zero if x is complex and recall that we only want real values of x for critical points.

Therefore, this function will not have any critical points.

It is important to note that not all functions will have critical points! In this course most of the functions
that we will be looking at do have critical points. That is only because those problems make for more
interesting examples. Do not let this fact lead you to always expect that a function will have critical points.
Sometimes they dont as this final example has shown.

Rates of Change Previous Section Next Section Minimum and Maximum Values

Derivatives Previous Chapter Next Chapter Integrals

Calculus I (Notes) / Applications of Derivatives / Critical Points [Notes] [Practice Problems ] [Assignment Problems]

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