Thomas' Calculus 13th Edition

Published by Pearson
ISBN 10: 0-32187-896-5
ISBN 13: 978-0-32187-896-0

Chapter 4: Applications of Derivatives - Section 4.4 - Concavity and Curve Sketching - Exercises 4.4 - Page 215: 108

Answer

$x=-\frac{b}{3a}$

Work Step by Step

Step 1. For the given cubic curve, we have $y'=3ax^2+2bx+c$ and $y''=6ax+2b, a\ne0$ Step 2. To find possible inflection points, let $y''=0$; we get $x=-\frac{b}{3a}$ Step 3. We can test the $y''$ sign changes across this point as: $..(\pm)..(-\frac{b}{3a})..(\mp)..$; thus $x=-\frac{b}{3a}$ is an inflection point. Step 4. We can not find more inflection points for this function.
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