How do you find intercepts, extrema, points of inflections, asymptotes and graph y=(20x)/(x^2+1)-1/xy=20xx2+11x?

1 Answer
Nov 14, 2016

There is a vertical asymptote at x=0x=0
There is a horizontal asymptote as x rarr +- oo x± along the xx-axis
x-intercepts when x=+-1/sqrt19x=±119
y(x) is an odd function, and it is symmetric about the origin O

Critical points are:
Maximum at (1.096, 9.046)(1.096,9.046)
Minimum at (-1.096, -9.046)(1.096,9.046)

Explanation:

y=(20x)/(x^2+1)-1/x y=20xx2+11x
:. y=((20x^2)-(x^2+1))/(x(x^2+1))
:. y=(19x^2-1)/(x(x^2+1))

Vertical Asymptotes
These will occur when the denominator is zero

:. x(x^2+1)) =0 => x=0

So There is a vertical asymptote at x=0

Horizontal Asymptotes
We need to examine the behaviour as x rarr +- oo.
For large x,
19x^2-1 ~ x^2
x^2+1 ~ x^2
So, (19x^2-1)/(x(x^2+1)) ~ 19x^2/x^3 ~ 1/x ->0 as x rarr +- oo
So There is a horizontal asymptote as x rarr +- oo along the x-axis

Odd/Even Function
Find y(-x);

y(-x)=(19(-x)^2-1)/(-x((-x)^2+1))
y(-x)=(19x^2-1)/(-x(x^2+1))
y(-x)=-(19x^2-1)/(x(x^2+1))
y(-x)=-y(x)

Hence y(x) is an odd function, and it is symmetric about the origin O

Intercepts

y=(19x^2-1)/(x(x^2+1)) => 19x^2-1 = 0
:. x^2=1/19
:. x^2=+-1/sqrt19 ~~~ +- 0.229

We have already established that x=0 is a vertical asymptotes so there are not y-axis intercepts.
Hence x-intercepts when x=+-1/sqrt19

Summary
There is a vertical asymptote at x=0
There is a horizontal asymptote as x rarr +- oo
y(x) is an odd function, and it is symmetric about the origin O

Extrema
Because of symmetry we only need to identify extra for x>=0
We can write;

y=(19x^2-1)/(x^3+x)

Using the quotient rule

y=(19x^2-1)/(x^3+x)
dy/dx=((x^3+x)(d/dx(19x^2-1)) - (19x^2-1)(d/dx(x^3+x)) )/(x^3+x)^2
:. dy/dx=((x^3+x)(38x) - (19x^2-1)(3x^2+1) )/(x^3+x)^2
:. dy/dx=(38x^4+38x^2 - (57x^4+16x^2-1) )/(x^3+x)^2
:. dy/dx=(38x^4+38x^2 - 57x^4-16x^2+1 )/(x^3+x)^2
:. dy/dx=(-19x^4+22x^2 +1 )/(x^3+x)^2
:. dy/dx=-((19x^4-22x^2 -1 ))/(x^3+x)^2

At extrema, dy/dx=0 => 19x^4-22x^2 -1 =0
This is quadratic in x^2 and can be solved, which I will return to!
To solve this we use the quadratic formula

x=(-b+-sqrt(b^2-4ac))/(2a)

to find two solutions for x^2, and then take their square roots, which yields two real solutions;

x=+-1.096 (3dp)

Due to the symmetry about O, we only need to examine one of these critical points as the other will be the opposite. Let's look at x=1.096

By inspection (using a calculator with x=1.096+-epsilon, where epsilon is small we can see this point corresponds to a maximum, and so x=-1.096 is a minimum. We could also investigate using the second derivative test, but due to the complexity a simple computed test is easier.

When x=1.096 => y=9.046 (3dp)

Hence, Critical points are:
Maximum at (1.096, 9.046)
Minimum at (-1.096, -9.046)

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