Homework Help: college algebra

Posted by Zach on Wednesday, April 2, 2008 at 7:17pm.

Let f(x)= x^5/120 - x^3/6 + x

Find the local minima and maxima, then determine where the function is decreasing and increasing.

Basically, I just need to know how to type this correctly in my calculator so I can get the right minima and maxima.

I had:

local minima: f(-1.59)=-1.00
f(3.08)=.520
local maxima: f(1.59)=1.00
f(-3.08)=-.520
and

increasing : (-1.5, 1.5)
decreasing : (1.5, 3)

college algebra - Anonymous, Wednesday, April 2, 2008 at 7:30pm
Hmm I do not know how to do it entirely by calculator since you have to find the derivative by hand. You can then plug the derivative into the calculator and get the zeros for the local minima and maxima. Local minimas in this case occur only when the slope changes from negative to positive. Local maximas occur when the slope changes from positive to negative. BTW, I took a quick look at the graph and you are missing some intervals for increasing and decreasing so you may want to double check them.

Answer this Question

Related Questions

Calculus (urgent!!) - Please answer the following questions about the function f...
Calculus (pleas help!!!) - Please answer the following questions about the ...
Calculus (pleas help!!!) - Please answer the following questions about the ...
College Alg - find the intervals on which the function is increasing or ...
basic calculus - use the first and second derivatives to find the x-coordinates ...
How to sketch graph of... - a differentiable function y =f(x) that has the given...
calculus - find and classify all local minima, local maxima, and saddle points ...
Calculus (pleas help!!!) - Let p(x)=x^2(a−x), where a is constant and ...
cal3 - Find and classify all local minima, local maxima, and saddle points of ...
math about to have a test over this please help! - Unfortunately that is the ...

For Further Reading

First Name:
School Subject:
Answer: