How do you find the critical points for -2/9x^3 -2/3x^2+16/3x+160/929x323x2+163x+1609 and the local max and min?

1 Answer
Sep 28, 2016

See below.

Explanation:

f(x) = -2/9x^3 -2/3x^2+16/3x+160/9f(x)=29x323x2+163x+1609

First, let's clean the expression up by factoring out -2/929.

f(x) = -2/9(x^3 + 3x^2 - 24x - 80)f(x)=29(x3+3x224x80).

Now, we'll find the critical numbers by finding the numbers in the domain at which the derivative is 00 or fails to exist.

The domain of ff is all real numbers.

f'(x) = -2/9(3x^2+6x-24).

The derivative exists for all real x, so now we need to solve f'(x)=0 to find the critical numbers.

-2/9(3x^2+6x-24)=0 is equivalent to

-2/3(x^2+2x-8)=0

-2/3(x+4)(x-2) = 0

x=-4 " " or " " x=2.

These are the critical numbers for f. They determine three intervals on the number line.

We look at the sign of f' on each interval to determine whether f is increasing or decreasing on the interval

{: (bb "Interval", bb"Sign of "f',bb" Incr/Decr"), ((-oo,-4)," " -" ", " "" Decr"), ((-4,2), " " +, " " " Incr"), ((2 ,oo), " " -, " "" Decr") :}

f has a local minimum of 0 at -4, and

f has a local maximum of 24 at 2.

Calculations

f(-4) = -2/9[(-4)^3+3(-4)^2-24(-4)-80]

= -2/9[-4(16)+3(16)+6(16)-5(16)]

= -2/9[0(16)] = 0

and

f(2) = -2/9[(2)^3+3(2)^2-24(2)-80]

= -2/9[2(4)+3(4)-12(4)-20(4)]

= -2/9[-27(4)] = (2cancel((27))^3(4))/cancel(9) = 24