Lesson 15

Increasing & Decreasing

Functions;
Concavity;
Point of inflection;
Relative Extrema
OBJECTIVES:
• to define increasing and decreasing functions;
• to define concavity and direction of bending that is concave
upward or concave downward;
• to determine the point of inflection; and
• to define relative maximum and relative minimum of functions
 INCREASING and DECREASING
FUNCTIONS
The term increasing, decreasing, and constant are used to
describe the behavior of a function as we travel left to right
along its graph. An example is shown below.

increasing decreasing increasing constant

0 2 4
The tangent line drawn at any point on the curve are observed as follows:
y y





x x
Each tangent line has positive slope;
y Each tangent line has negative slope;
f ’(x) > 0; function is increasing
f ’(x) < 0; function is decreasing
 

x
Each tangent line has zero slope;
f ’(x) = 0; function is constant
 CONCAVITY
Although the sign of the derivative of f reveals where the graph of f is
increasing or decreasing , it does not reveal the direction of the curvature.
There are two ways to characterize the concavity of a differentiable function in an
open interval:
• f is concave up in an open interval if its tangent lines have increasing slopes on
that interval; sketching directional tangents, the graph is observed to lie above its
tangent lines. y

  Increasing slopes;
concave up
Tangent lines rotate from one with
 
negative slope to a line with
 positive slope.
x
increasing slopes
There are two ways to characterize the concavity of a differentiable function in an
open interval:
• f is concave down in an open interval if its tangent lines have decreasing slopes
on that interval; sketching directional tangents, the graph is observed to lie
below its tangent lines.


  Decreasing slopes;
Tangent lines rotate from one with
 
concave down
positive slope to a line with
x
negative slope.
decreasing slopes
Formal definition of the “concave up” and “concave down” using the
FIRST DERIVATIVE:

Formal definition of the “concave up” and “concave down” using the
SECOND DERIVATIVE:
 INFLECTION
POINTS
Points where the curve changes from concave up to concave
down or vice-versa are called points of inflection.
RELATIVE MAXIMUM AND RELATIVE
MINIMUM
EXAMPLE :

1 4 4 3
y  x  x  x2  4 x  1
3 2 3
2 has a relative minima at x  1 and x  2
1 and a relative maximum at x  1
-1
x
-3 1 2 3

-3
 CRITICAL POINTS

The points x1, x2, x3, x4, and x5 are critical points.
Of these, x1, x2, and x5 are stationary points where f’(x) = 0.
And x3 and x4 are points of non-differentiability where f’(x) is undefined or does not
exist.
Formal Definition of Critical Points
EXAMPLE: