12 SL Stationary Points

In class we defined a stationary point, and noted that a stationary point may be a local maximum or a local minimum. There is, however, a third option, as illustrated by the function \(f(x)=x^3\) when \(x=0\). While the function does have a stationary point at \(x=0\), it is neither a local maximum, nor a local minimum, instead, it’s called a point of inflection.

Read Section 16C, then try questions 1 and 2ac in Exercise 16C before our class on Wednesday.

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