Foundation Mathematics

Topic 4 – Lecture 3: Introduction to Differential

Calculus

Identifying Key Features of Gradients

Maximum and Minimum Points

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 Introduction to Differential Calculus 3 Topic 4 - 3.2

Scope and Coverage

This topic will cover:
• Plotting maximum and minimum turning points using
graphical means
• Identification and application of maximum and
minimum points using differentiation.

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 Introduction to Differential Calculus 3 Topic 4 - 3.3

Learning Outcomes
By the end of this topic students will be able to:
• Plot maximum and minimum turning points using
graphs
• Identify the maximum and minimum turning points
using differentiation

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 Introduction to Differential Calculus 3 Topic 4 - 3.4

Maximum and Minimum Points – Changing the shape

of graphs - 1
When we plot graphs of data it is often possible to identify changes
in the shape of those graphs
y
a

b
As we can see in this diagram the shape of the graph changes at
point a and again at point b

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 Introduction to Differential Calculus 3 Topic 4 - 3.5

Maximum and Minimum Points – Changing the shape

of graphs - 2
• The shape of the graph may have changed for a number of reasons
• The change in shape of the graph is as a consequence of what we
call turning points. These turning points are described as
maximum points or minimum points

Positive gradient

Negative gradient

Zero gradient

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 Introduction to Differential Calculus 3 Topic 4 - 3.6

Maximum Turning Point

Zero gradient
y

Negative gradient

Positive gradient

x
The shape of the graph shows the turning point at the highest
value on the y axis, so this is a Maximum Turning Point

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 Introduction to Differential Calculus 3 Topic 4 - 3.7

Minimum Turning Point

y

Positive gradient
Negative gradient

Zero gradient

x
The shape of the graph shows the turning point occurs at the
lowest value on the y axis therefore is a Minimum Turning Point

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 Introduction to Differential Calculus 3 Topic 4 - 3.8

Complex Turning Points

y
A
Q

z B

• B is the minimum turning point as it has a

gradient of 0 and A is the maximum turning point
as it also has a gradient of 0

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 Introduction to Differential Calculus 3 Topic 4 - 3.9

Plotting Graphs - 1
• Plot the graph of y = x3 – 5x2 + 2x + 8 for values of x
between -2 and 6. Hence find the maximum and
minimum values of y.
• To plot the graph we draw up a table
X -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
y = x3 – 5x2 + 2x + 8 -24 0 8 6 0 -4 0 18 56

• We can then plot this data as a graph to show the

relationship between x and y

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 Introduction to Differential Calculus 3 Topic 4 - 3.10

Plotting Graphs - 2
Plotting the graph gives us the following shape. It can be seen
that neither is A the highest value nor B the lowest value but
they are the turning points in respect of the values of y

0.21
B
3.12

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 Introduction to Differential Calculus 3 Topic 4 - 3.11

Applying Differential Calculus - 1

• Consider the relationship between two variables y and x
which can be expressed as y = x2 - 5

• If we wish to identify any turning point in this relationship

we can present it in a graph. To do this we need to plot
values of x against y.

• Setting up a simple table requires us to propose limits for the

values of x that we will use.

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 Introduction to Differential Calculus 3 Topic 4 - 3.12

Applying Differential Calculus - 2

• This is presented as –n  x  n

• Therefore if we set limits of -5  x  5 we can now construct

a table of values for both x and y

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 Introduction to Differential Calculus 3 Topic 4 - 3.13

Drawing Gradient Functions

By substituting values of x into the equation for y we get the following
x -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6
y = x2 - 5 31 11 -1 -5 -1 11 31

If we then plot this as a graph we get a shape like this

40 Minimum turning point is at
x = 0, y = -5
30

20

10
-6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6

-10 Gradient = 0

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 Introduction to Differential Calculus 3 Topic 4 - 3.14

Alternative Approach
• We can also locate maximum and minimum turning points by
differentiation.
• Consider the previous example in which y  x2  5
• If we differentiate we get the gradient function of dy  2 x
dy dx
• When x = 0, dx  0 so 2x = 0. We have a turning point (x, y)
at (0, - 5)
• This is what we found using the other, graphical, method.

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 Introduction to Differential Calculus 3 Topic 4 - 3.15

Alternative Approach - 2
• We take a value which is smaller than the x value (0)
In this case we can take – 0.2
dy
• As the gradient function is  2 x this gives us a value of -0.4 on the left
hand side. dx

On the right hand side we take + 0.2 which gives us a value of = 0.4

The gradient is therefore negative, reaches zero then becomes positive.

This is the character of a minimum turning point. For a maximum turning
point the gradient is positive, becomes zero and then negative.

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 Introduction to Differential Calculus 3 Topic 4 - 3.16

Further Application – Area Part 1

• A farmer has 100m of fencing to enclose a rectangular
field. What is the maximum area that can be enclosed?
• In this problem we need to express the information in the
form of an equation. Therefore let the length of the
rectangle = x and the width = y
• We know that the perimeter (p) of a rectangle is found
from p = 2x + 2y

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 Introduction to Differential Calculus 3 Topic 4 - 3.17

Further Application – Area Part 1

Continued
• We also know that the area of a rectangle (a) is a = xy
• As we are maximising area (a) we need to have a as a
function of x
• To do this we need to eliminate the other unknown (y) in
order to calculate x

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 Introduction to Differential Calculus 3 Topic 4 - 3.18

Further Application – Area Part 2

From the formula for the perimeter p = 2x + 2y we can rearrange to express
y in terms of both p and x, thus

1 1
y  ( p  2 x) which when we remove the brackets = p  x
2 2
1 1
Therefore as a = xy this can now be written as  x ( p  x )  xp  x
2

2 2
1 da 1
Differentiating xp  x 2
gives us  p  2 x . Remember at a turning
2 dx 2
da
point – in this case our maximum point – the gradient function is = 0
dx

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 Introduction to Differential Calculus 3 Topic 4 - 3.19

Further Application – Area Part 2 Continued

1
Therefore at a maximum point p  2x  0
2
1 1
Rearranging we get x  p therefore x  the length of the perimeter
4 4
x = 25 metres

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 Introduction to Differential Calculus 3 Topic 4 - 3.20

Further Application – Area Part 3

1
Substituting this value of x (25m) into our equation y  p wex now get
2
1 1 1
y  p  p rearranging this equation by subtraction gives y p
2 4 4
Therefore the value of y is also 1 (quarter of the perimeter) and therefore 25
p
metres 4

This shows that the length of the rectangle and width of the rectangle are the
same – that it is a square.

The total area enclosed is therefore 25 metres x 25 metres = 625m 2

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 Introduction to Differential Calculus 3 Topic 4 - 3.21

Topic 4 - Introduction to Differential Calculus 3

Any Questions?

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