How do you sketch the graph by determining all relative max and min, inflection points, finding intervals of increasing, decreasing and any asymptotes given f(x)=x^4-4x^3?

1 Answer
May 5, 2017

See below.

Explanation:

f(x) = x^4-4x^3 " " Domain (-oo,oo)

Asymptotes: None. Polynomials don't have (linear) asymptotes.

Intercepts
x-intercepts are at solutions to f(x) = 0, so the x intercepts are 0 and 4.
y-intercepts are at f(0) so the y-intercept is 0.

Analysis of f'(x)

f'(x) = 4x^3-12x^2 is never undefined and is 0 at x=0 and at x=3. Investigating the sign of f'(x) we find

on (-oo,0), f'(x) is negative, so f is decreasing,
on (0,3), f'(x) is negative, so f is decreasing,
on (3,oo), f'(x) is positive, so f is increasing.

There is a relative minimum at x=3. The minimum is f(3) = 3(3)^3-4(3)^3 = -27

There are no relative maxima.

Before we look at concavity, here is the straight line sketch:

enter image source here

Analysis of f''(x)

f''(x) = 12x^2-24x = 12x(x-2) is never undefined and is 0 at x=0 and at x=2. Investigating the sign of f'' we have

on (-oo,0), f''(x) is positive, so f is concave up (convex),
on (0,3), f''(x) is negative, so f is concave down (concave),
on (3,oo), f''(x) is positive, so f is concave up (convex).

Inflection points are points on the graph at which the concavity changed. Therefore, there are inflection points at x=0 and x=2.

The inflection points are: (0,0) and (2,-16).

(f(2) = 2(8)-4(8) = -16).

Now that we have concavity, we can improve our sketch:
enter image source here

Here is Socratic's graph. (You can move it and zoom in/out. If you leave this answer and come back, the graph will reset to the original view.)
graph{x^4-4x^3 [-37.2, 35.86, -29.07, 7.48]}