4.

1MaximumandMinimumValues

Someofthemostimportantapplicationsofcalculusare
optimizationproblems,inwhichwearerequiredtofindthe
optimal(best)wayofdoingsomething,suchasinthe
exampleslistedonp.203ofyourbook.Allofthese
problemsinvolvefindingamaximumorminimumvalueof
afunction.Youcanseewherethemaxandminareonthe
graphinfigure1,andaformaldefinitionfollows.

Anabsolutemaximumorminimumcanalsobecalledaglobalmaxormin.
Bothofthesearecalledextremevaluesoff.Inadditiontohavingan
absolutemaximumorminimumonagraph,youcanalsohavealocal
maximumorminimum,asseeninfigure2.

The phrase "near c" means on an open interval containing c.

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.

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Usethegraphsbelowtodeterminetheabsoluteandlocalmaximumand
minimumvaluesofeachfunction.

Sketchthegraphofafunctionfthatiscontinuouson[0,6]andhasthe
givenproperties.

Absoluteminimumat1,absolutemaximumat5,localmaximumat2,local
minimumat4.

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Considerthefunctions

a)y=sinx b)y=x2 c)y=x3 d)y=12x348x2+36x ,on[1,4]

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|.

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Sketchthegraphoffbyhandanduseyoursketchtofindanyabsoluteandlocal
maximumandminimumvaluesoff.

f(x)=2x+4,1 x3 f(t)=2cost,3/2 t3/2

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 Intermsofcriticalnumbers,Fermat'sTheoremcanberephrasedasfollows:
Iffhasalocalmaximumorminimumatc,thencisacriticalnumber.

So,whenwe'relookingforextrema,weneedtostartbyfindingthesecriticalnumbers,
whichmeansthatourfirststepistotakethederivative.

Examples:Findthecriticalnumbersforeachofthefollowingfunctions:

f(x)=5x23x+7 f(x)=x2lnx

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f(x)=x2/5(4x+7)

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Tofindtheabsolutemaxorminofacontinuousfunction,itmusteitherbeatalocal
maxormin(inwhichcaseitoccursatacriticalnumber)oritoccursatanendpoint
oftheinterval.Thusthefollowingthreestepprocedurealwaysworks:

Examples:Findtheabsolutemaximumandminimumvaluesofeachof
thefollowingfunctionsonthegivenintervals:

f(x)=2x23x+7[3,5] f(x)=5+54x2x3[0,4]

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f(x)=(x21)3[1,2]