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AT POINT OF INFLECTION THE DERIVATIVE MUST BE ZERO CORRECT?? AND HOW CAN A POINT OF INFLEXION BE IDENTIFIED ON A GRAPH OF FUNCTION AND WAT DOES F DOUBLE DERIVATIVE X ESIXT MEAN???

AT POINT OF INFLECTION THE DERIVATIVE MUST BE ZERO CORRECT?? AND HOW CAN A POINT OF INFLEXION BE IDENTIFIED ON A GRAPH OF FUNCTION AND WAT DOES F DOUBLE DERIVATIVE X ESIXT MEAN??? 

Grade:Upto college level

2 Answers

AKASH GOYAL AskiitiansExpert-IITD
420 Points
13 years ago

Dear Mir

First derivative need not to be zero.Pint of inflection can be identified where there is change of curvature.Since the first derivative is at an extremum, it follows that the second derivative, f″(x), is equal to zero if it exists, but the latter condition does not provide a sufficient definition of a point of inflection. One also needs the lowest-order non-zero derivative to be of odd order (third, fifth, etc.). If the lowest-order non-zero derivative is of even order, the point is not a point of inflection.

All the best.

AKASH GOYAL

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susheel suresh
18 Points
11 years ago

how to identify inflection pt if second derivative is not defined, without drawing the graph.

ex: the function 2x2/(x2 – 1). It is concave up when |x| > 1 and concave down when |x| < 1. However, it has no points of     inflection because 1 and -1 are not in the domain of the function.

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