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## AP®︎/College Calculus AB

### Course: AP®︎/College Calculus AB>Unit 5

Lesson 7: Determining concavity of intervals and finding points of inflection: algebraic

# Concavity review

AP.CALC:
FUN‑4 (EU)
,
FUN‑4.A (LO)
,
FUN‑4.A.4 (EK)
,
FUN‑4.A.5 (EK)
,
FUN‑4.A.6 (EK)
Review your knowledge of concavity of functions and how we use differential calculus to analyze it.

## What is concavity?

Concavity relates to the rate of change of a function's derivative. A function f is concave up (or upwards) where the derivative f, prime is increasing. This is equivalent to the derivative of f, prime, which is f, start superscript, prime, prime, end superscript, being positive. Similarly, f is concave down (or downwards) where the derivative f, prime is decreasing (or equivalently, f, start superscript, prime, prime, end superscript is negative).
Graphically, a graph that's concave up has a cup shape, \cup, and a graph that's concave down has a cap shape, \cap.

## Practice set 1: Analyzing concavity graphically

Problem 1.1
• Current
Select all the intervals where f, prime, left parenthesis, x, right parenthesis, is greater than, 0 and f, start superscript, prime, prime, end superscript, left parenthesis, x, right parenthesis, is greater than, 0.

Want to try more problems like this? Check out this exercise.

## Practice set 2: Analyzing concavity algebraically

Problem 2.1
• Current
f, left parenthesis, x, right parenthesis, equals, 3, x, start superscript, 4, end superscript, minus, 16, x, cubed, plus, 24, x, squared, plus, 48
On which intervals is the graph of f concave down?

Want to try more problems like this? Check out this exercise.

## Want to join the conversation?

• if two functions are concave up will their product and sum also be concave up?
• You have two functions f and g, where f''>0 and g''>0.
If you take the second derivative of f+g, you get f''+g'', which is positive. So their sum is concave up.

If you take the second derivative of fg, you get the derivative of f'g+fg', or f''g+2f'g'+fg''. f'' and g'' are positive, but the other terms can have any sign, so the whole expression need not be positive.

For example, consider f(x)=1/x and g(x)=√x³. Both are concave up for x>0, but their product is √x, which is concave down.
• If f''(x) of a function is never undefined AND is never equal to zero, how can we determine the concavity of the function?
(1 vote)
• In order for 𝑓(𝑥) to be concave up, in some interval, 𝑓 ''(𝑥) has to be greater than or equal to 0 (i.e. non-negative) for all 𝑥 in that interval.
The same goes for 𝑓(𝑥) concave down, but then 𝑓 ''(𝑥) is non-positive.

Saying 𝑓 ''(𝑥) ≠ 0 is not enough to determine the concavity of 𝑓(𝑥), because 𝑓 ''(𝑥) might not be continuous and could thereby change polarity without crossing the 𝑥-axis.
• Is it possible to have an inflection point at x=a for f(x) even if f''(a) does not equal to zero?
• Yes, it's possible that f''(a) doesn't exist. But if f''(a) is well-defined and nonzero, then you don't have an inflection point.
(1 vote)
• Does differentiability at a point matter when determining concavity? For example, if the question asks what interval is the graph of f concave up but the point is not differentiable (it is the junction of a piecewise function), should it be included when giving the intervals?
• Points to be considered are points where f"(x) = 0 and f"(x) is undefined. When you are finding places where f(x) is concave up or concave down, you are also finding intervals where f'(x) is increasing or decreasing, so we have to consider all critical points of f'(x).
(1 vote)
• Examine the function:
y=x(x-1)^3
y'=3x(x-1)^2+(x-1)^3
Note: I won't finish the question, I'll just ask where do they get (x-1)^3 in y'?
(1 vote)
• Product rule: d/dx[f(x)*g(x)] = f'(x)g(x) + f(x)g'(x)
f(x) = (x-1)³ and g(x) = x