Section 3-3 : Relative Minimums and Maximums

1. Find and classify all the critical points of the following function.

f ( x, y ) =( y − 2) x2 − y 2
Step 1
We’re going to need a bunch of derivatives for this problem so let’s get those taken care of first.

2 ( y − 2) x
fx = fy =
x2 − 2 y
2 ( y − 2)
fx x = fx y =
2x fy y =
−2

Step 2
Now, let’s find the critical points for this problem. That means solving the following system.

f=
x 0 : 2 ( y − 2) =
x 0 → =
y 2 or =
x 0
=fy 0 : x 2=
− 2y 0

As shown above we have two possible options from the first equation. We can plug each into the
second equation to get the critical points for the equation.

y =2 : x 2 − 4 =0 → x =±2 ⇒ ( 2, 2 ) and ( −2, 2 )

x = 0 : − 2y = 0 → y = 0 ⇒ ( 0, 0 )
Be careful in writing down the solution to this system of equations. One of the biggest mistakes
students make here is to just write down all possible combinations of x and y values they get. That is
not how these types of systems are solved!

We got x = ±2 above only because we assumed first that y = 2 and so that leads to the two solutions
listed in that first line above. Likewise, we only got y = 0 because we first assumed that x = 0 which
leads to the third solution listed above in the second line. The points ( 0, 2 ) , ( −2, 0 ) and ( 2, 0 ) are
NOT solutions to this system as can be easily checked by plugging them into the second equation in the
system.

So, do not just “mix and match” all possible values of x and y into points and call them all solutions. This
will often lead to points that are not solutions to the system of equations. You need to always keep in
mind what assumptions you had to make in order to get certain x or y values in the solution process and
only match those values up with the assumption you had to make.

So, in summary, this function has three critical points : ( 0, 0 ) , ( −2, 2 ) , ( 2, 2 ) .

Also, before proceeding with the next step we should note that there are multiple ways to solve this
system. The process you used may not be the same as the one we used here. However, regardless of
the process used to solve the system, the solutions should always be the same.

Step 3
Next, we’ll need the following,

D ( x, y ) =f x x f y y −  f x y  = 2 ( y − 2 )  [ −2] − [ 2 x ] =−4 ( y − 2 ) − 4 x 2

2 2

Step 4
With D ( x, y ) we can now classify each of the critical points as follows.

( 0, 0 ) : D ( 0, 0 ) =8 > 0 f x x ( 0, 0 ) =−4 < 0 Relative Maximum

( −2, 2 ) : D ( −2, 2 ) =−16 < 0 Saddle Point
( 2, 2 ) : D ( 2, 2 ) =−16 < 0 Saddle Point

Don’t forget to check the value of f x x when D is positive so we can get the correct classification (i.e.
maximum or minimum) and also recall that for negative D we don’t need the second check as we know
the critical point will be a saddle point.

2. Find and classify all the critical points of the following function.

f ( x, y ) = 7 x − 8 y + 2 xy − x 2 + y 3

Step 1
We’re going to need a bunch of derivatives for this problem so let’s get those taken care of first.

f x =7 + 2 y − 2 x f y =−8 + 2 x + 3 y 2
fx x =
−2 fx y =
2 fy y =
6y

Step 2
Now, let’s find the critical points for this problem. That means solving the following system.

=fx 0 : 7 + 2 y=
− 2x 0
f y = 0 : − 8 + 2x + 3y2 = 0 → x = 4 − 32 y 2

As shown above we solved the second equation for x and we can now plug this into the first equation as
follows,
 7 + 2 y − 2 ( 4 − 32 y 2 ) =
0= ( 3 y − 1)( y + 1)
3y2 + 2 y −1 = → y=
−1, y =
1
3

This gives two values of y which we can now plug back into either of our equations to find corresponding
x values. Here is that work.

y= 4 32 ( −1) =
−1 : x =− ⇒ ( 52 , −1)
5 2
2

4 − 23 ( 13 ) = ( 236 , 13 )
2
y=
3 : x =
1 23
6 ⇒

Be careful in writing down the solution to this system of equations. One of the biggest mistakes
students make here is to just write down all possible combinations of x and y values they get. That is
not how these types of systems are solved!

We got x = 5
2 above only because we assumed first that y = −1 and so that leads to the solution listed
in first line above. Likewise, we only got x = 23
6 because we first assumed that y = 1
3 which leads to the
second solution listed in the second line above. The points ( 52 , 13 ) and ( 236 , −1) are NOT a solutions to
this system as can be easily checked by plugging these points into the either of the equations in the
system.

So, do not just “mix and match” all possible values of x and y into points and call them all solutions. This
will often lead to points that are not solutions to the system of equations. You need to always keep in
mind what assumptions you had to make in order to get certain x or y values in the solution process and
only match those values up with the assumption you had to make.

So, in summary, this function has two critical points : ( 52 , −1) , ( 236 , 13 ) .
Before proceeding with the next step we should note that there are multiple ways to solve this system.
The process you used may not be the same as the one we used here. However, regardless of the
process used to solve the system, the solutions should always be the same.

Step 3
Next, we’ll need the following,

D ( x, y ) = [ −2][6 y ] − [ 2] =
2
f x x f y y −  f x y  = −12 y − 4
2

Step 4
With D ( x, y ) we can now classify each of the critical points as follows.

( 52 , −1) : D ( 52 , −1) =8>0 f x x ( 52 , −1) =−2 < 0 Relative Maximum

( 236 , 13 ) : D ( 236 , 13 ) =−8 < 0 Saddle Point
Don’t forget to check the value of f x x when D is positive so we can get the correct classification (i.e.
maximum or minimum) and also recall that for negative D we don’t need the second check as we know
the critical point will be a saddle point.

3. Find and classify all the critical points of the following function.

( 3x 4 x3 )( y 2 + 2 y )
f ( x, y ) =+

Step 1
We’re going to need a bunch of derivatives for this problem so let’s get those taken care of first.

Do not make these derivatives harder than really are! Do not multiply the function out! We just have a
function of x’s times a function of y’s. Take advantage of that when doing the derivatives.

( 3 + 12 x 2 )( y 2 + 2 y )
fx = ( 3x + 4 x3 ) ( 2 y + 2 )
fy =
24 x ( y 2 + 2 y )
fx x = ( 3 + 12 x 2 ) ( 2 y + 2 )
fx y = 2 ( 3x + 4 x3 )
fy y =

Step 2
Now, let’s find the critical points for this problem. That means solving the following system.

=
fx 0 : ( 3 + 12 x )( y + 2=
2 2
y) 0
=fy 0 : ( 3x + 4 x ) ( 2=
3
y + 2) 0

We could start the solution process with either of these equations as both are pretty simple to solve.
Let’s start with the first equation.

( 3 + 12 x )( y
2 2
+ 2y) =
( 3 + 12 x 2 ) ( y )( y + 2 ) =
0 → y=
0, y =
−2, x =
± 12 i

Okay, we’ve got something to deal with at this point. We clearly get four different values to work with
here. Two of them, however, are complex. One of the unspoken rules here is that we are only going to
work with real values and so we will ignore any complex answers and work with only the real values.

So, we now have two possible values of y so let’s plug each of them into the second equation as follows,

0 : 2 ( 3x + 4 x3 ) =
y= 2x (3 + 4x2 ) =
0 → x=
0, x =
± 23 i ⇒ ( 0, 0 )

−2 : − 2 ( 3 x + 4 x3 ) =
y= 2 x (3 + 4 x2 ) =
0 → x=
0, x =
± 23 i ⇒ ( 0, −2 )
As with the first part of the solution process we only take the real values and so ignore the complex
portions from this part as well.
In the previous two problems we made mention at this point to be careful and not just from up points
for all possible combinations of the x and y values we have at this point.

One of the reasons that students often do that is because of problems like this one where it appears
that we are doing just that. However, we haven’t just randomly formed all combinations here. It just so
happened that when we assumed y = 0 and y = −2 that we just happened to get the same value of x,
x = 0 . In general, this won’t happen and so do not read into this problem that we always just form all
possible combinations of the x and y values to get the critical points for a function. We must always pay
attention to the assumptions made at the start of each step.

So, in summary, this function has two critical points : ( 0, −2 ) , ( 0, 0 ) .

Before proceeding with the next step we should note that there are multiple ways to solve this system.
The process you used may not be the same as the one we used here. However, regardless of the
process used to solve the system, the solutions should always be the same.

Step 3
Next, we’ll need the following,

( x, y ) f x x f y y −  f x y 
2
D=

=  24 x ( y 2 + 2 y )   2 ( 3 x + 4 x3 )  − ( 3 + 12 x 2 ) ( 2 y + 2 ) 
2

= 48 x ( 3 x + 4 x 3 )( y 2 + 2 y ) − ( 3 + 12 x 2 ) ( 2 y + 2 )
2 2

Step 4
With D ( x, y ) we can now classify each of the critical points as follows.

( 0, −2 ) : D ( 0, −2 ) =−36 < 0 Saddle Point

( 0, 0 ) : D ( 0, 0 ) =−36 < 0 Saddle Point

Don’t always expect every problem to have at least one relative extrema. As this example has shown it
is completely possible to have only saddle points.

4. Find and classify all the critical points of the following function.

f ( x, y ) = 3 y 3 − x 2 y 2 + 8 y 2 + 4 x 2 − 20 y

Step 1
We’re going to need a bunch of derivatives for this problem so let’s get those taken care of first.
 fx =
−2 xy 2 + 8 x fy =
9 y 2 − 2 x 2 y + 16 y − 20
fx x =
−2 y 2 + 8 fx y =
−4 xy fy y =
18 y − 2 x 2 + 16

Step 2
Now, let’s find the critical points for this problem. That means solving the following system.

fx =
0 : 2x ( 4 − y2 ) =
− 2 xy 2 + 8 x = 0 → y=
±2 or x =
0
=fy 0 : 9 y 2 − 2 x 2 y +=
16 y − 20 0

As shown above we have three possible options from the first equation. We can plug each into the
second equation to get the critical points for the equation.

y =−2 : 4 x 2 − 16 =0 → x =±2 ⇒ ( 2, −2 ) and ( −2, −2 )

y=
2 : − 4 x 2 + 48 =
0 → x=
±2 3 ⇒ (2 3, 2 ) (
and −2 3, 2 )
x = 0 : 9 y 2 + 16 y − 20 = 0 → y = −16 ± 976
18 ⇒ ( 0, −16 − 976
18 ) and ( 0, −16 + 976
18 )
As we noted in the first two problems in this section be careful to only write down the actual solutions
as found in the above work. Do not just write down all possible combinations of x and y from each of
the three lines above. If you do that for this problem you will end up with a large number of points that
are not critical points.

Also, do not get excited about the “mess” (i.e. roots) involved in some of the critical points. They will be
a fact of life with these problems on occasion.

So, in summary, this function has the following six critical points.

( −2, −2 ) , ( 2, −2 ) , ( 2 )( ) ( ) (
3, 2 , −2 3, 2 , 0, −16−18 976 , 0, −16+18 976 . )
Step 3
Next, we’ll need the following,

( x, y ) f x x f y y −  f x y 
2
D=

=  −2 y 2 + 8 18 y − 2 x 2 + 16  − [ −4 xy ]
2

=  −2 y 2 + 8 18 y − 2 x 2 + 16  − 16 x 2 y 2

Step 4
With D ( x, y ) we can now classify each of the critical points as follows.
( −2, −2 ) : D ( −2, −2 ) =−256 < 0 Saddle Point
( 2, −2 ) : D ( 2, −2 ) =−256 < 0 Saddle Point

( −2 3, 2) : D ( −2 3, 2) =−768 < 0 Saddle Point

( 2 3, 2) : D ( 2 3, 2) = −768 < 0 Saddle Point

( 0, ) : D ( 0,
−16 − 976
18 )=180.4 > 0 f ( 0,
−16 − 976
18 xx
−16 − 976
18 )=
−5.8 < 0 Relative Maximum

( 0, 18) : D ( 0,
−16 + 976
)=205.1 > 0 f ( 0,
−16 + 976
18 xx
−16 + 976
18 )=
6.6 > 0 Relative Minimum

Don’t forget to check the value of f x x when D is positive so we can get the correct classification (i.e.
maximum or minimum) and also recall that for negative D we don’t need the second check as we know
the critical point will be a saddle point.