Calculus for Business

Chapter 3
Applications of
differentiation
Increasing and decreasing functions
Procedure for Using the derivative to Determine Intervals of Increase and Decrease for a
function f

Let f be continuous on the interval (a,b). To find the open intervals on which f is increasing
or decreasing , use the following steps.
1- Find all values of x which f’(x)=0
2- Locate the critical numbers of f in (a,b), and use these numbers to determine test intervals
3- Determine the sign of f’(x) at one test value c in each of the intervals.

If f’(c)>0, the function is increasing on a<x<b

If f’(c)<0, the function is decreasing on a<x<b

Example
Solution
 Relative extrema

Since a function f(x) is increasing when f’(x)>0 and decreasing when f’(x)<0, the only points
where f(x) can have a relative extremum are where f’(x)=0 or f’(x) does not exist.
Such points are critical points
 First Derivative test for relative extrema

After you have determined the intervals on which a function is increasing or decreasing,
you can locate the relative extrema of the function .
The following theorem called the First Derivative Test, makes this more explicit.
The Second Derivative Test
Example
Solution
1) Find the profit and the revenue functions.
2) Determine the production output that maximizes the profit.
3) Determine the production output that maximizes the revenue.
 Concavity

You have already seen that locating the intervals in which a function f increases or decreases
helps to describe its graph. In this section,you will see how locating the intervals in which f’
increases or decreases can be used to determine where the graph of f is curving upward
or curving downward
Concavity
A graph is concave upward on an interval if it lies above its tangent lines on the interval
and concave downward if it lies below its tangent lines.
 Concavity

Determining intervals of concavity using the sign of f’’

Example
Solution
Inflection points
Example
28
Curve sketching
Optimization
You can find the absolute extrema of a continuous function on a closed interval a≤x≤b
by using this procedure
Example
Solution
Exponential functions
Logarithmic functions
Logarithmic functions

Example
Solution
Example
Solution
Relationship between the graphs
Differentiation of logarithmic and exponential functions
Example
Solution
Logarithmic differentiation
Example

Find f’(x)
Solution
L’Hôpital’s Rule
Example
Solution