- Concavity is defined by the first derivative:
- But tested for by the second derivative:
Remember that our poster children for concavity are the functions x2 and -x2. But what if the second derivative is zero?
- Testing for inflection points using the second derivative test:
- Testing for extrema using the second derivative test:
- Examples:
- Putting it all together
- #42, p. 205
- Questions over the Directed reading handout, Section 4.4 (html) (pdf)?
