Absolute Maxima and Minima

The absolute maxima and absolute minima are referred to describing the largest and smallest
values of a function on an interval.

Definition

Let be a number in the domain D of a function . Then is the absolute

maximum value of on , if and is the absolute minimum

value of on if .

In general, there is no guarantee that a function will actually have an absolute maximum or
minimum on a given interval. The following figures show that a continous function may or may not
have absolute maxima or minima on an infinite interval or on a finite open interval.

has an absolute minimum but no has no absolute extrema on .

absolute maximum on

has an absolute maximum and an has no absolute extrema on .

absolute minimum on

has an absolute maximum and an

absolute minimum on
 However, the following theorem shows that a continous function must have both an absolute
maximum and an absolute minimum on every closed interval.

Theorem (Extreme Value Theorem)

If is continous on a closed interval , then has both an absolute maximum and an

absolute minimum on .

The absolute extrema of occur either at the endpoints of closed interval or inside

the open interval .If the absolute extrema occurs inside, then it must occur at critical numbers of

. Thus, we can use the following procedure to find the absolute extrema of a continuous

function on closed interval .

A procedure for finding the absolute extrema of a continous function on closed

interval .

Step 1. Find the critical numbers of in

Step 2. Evaluate at all the critical numbers and at the endpoints and

Step 3. The Largest and the smallest of the values in step 2 is the absolute maximum

and absolute minimum of respectively on the closed interval .

Example

Find the absolute maximum and minimum values of the function on

Solution

Differentiating we get,

Thus, .
Therefore, the critical numbers are . Evaluating at the endpoints and at

critical numbers , we get , , and .

From these values, the absolute maximum is which occurs at , and the absolute minimum

is which occurs at .

Example

Find the absolute extrema of on the closed interval .

Solution

Differentiating we get, .

Thus, . Evaluating at the endpoints and

at critical number , we get , , and .

From these values, the absolute maximum is which occurs at , and the absolute

minimum is which occurs at .

Exercise

Find the absolute extrema of the following functions on the given closed interval.

(i) ;

(ii) ;

(iii) ;