Differentiate (1 Viewer)

simDS

Member
Joined
Dec 20, 2007
Messages
34
Gender
Female
HSC
2009
hi,
hey can sombody please help me. :cold:
i can diffentiate it but how do you test the answer?

'find all values of x for which the curve f(x) = x^3 - 3x + 4 is decreasing'

thanks
 

lyounamu

Reborn
Joined
Oct 28, 2007
Messages
9,989
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
simDS said:
hi,
hey can sombody please help me. :cold:
i can diffentiate it but how do you test the answer?

'find all values of x for which the curve f(x) = x^3 - 3x + 4 is decreasing'

thanks
y = x^3 - 3x + 4

dy/dx = 3x^2 - 3 = 3(x^2-1) = 3(x+1)(x-1)

Draw the graph of 3(x+1)(x-1) then you will see that

3(x+1)(x-1) decreases when -1 < x < 1

NOTE: function is decreasing when dy/dx < 0 and function is increasing when dy/dx > 0
 

munch0r

New Member
Joined
Apr 29, 2007
Messages
18
Gender
Male
HSC
2008
f(x) = x^3 - 3x +4
f'(x) = 3(x^2 - 1)

if the curve is decreasing, f'(x) is negative
f'(x) is only negative when -1 < x < 1

lol beaten -__-
 

lyounamu

Reborn
Joined
Oct 28, 2007
Messages
9,989
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
munch0r said:
f(x) = x^3 - 3x +4
f'(x) = 3(x^2 - 1)

if the curve is decreasing, f'(x) is negative
f'(x) is only negative when -1 < x < 1

lol beaten -__-
Hehehe...no body can beat me in terms of my typing speed...:wave:
 

Timothy.Siu

Prophet 9
Joined
Aug 6, 2008
Messages
3,449
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2009
simDS said:
but how did you get -1 < x< 1
well if u draw it, u can see clearly when its under the x-axis. but u dont hav to draw it once u find the intercepts wich are 1 and -1 u can sub in a value eg 0 so u can find if its negative or positive then u know that its less than 0 for -1<x<1
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top