Calculus Examples

Find the Maximum/Minimum Value f(x)=(x^2)/((x-1)^2)
Step 1
Find the first derivative of the function.
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Step 1.1
Differentiate using the Quotient Rule which states that is where and .
Step 1.2
Differentiate using the Power Rule.
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Step 1.2.1
Multiply the exponents in .
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Step 1.2.1.1
Apply the power rule and multiply exponents, .
Step 1.2.1.2
Multiply by .
Step 1.2.2
Differentiate using the Power Rule which states that is where .
Step 1.2.3
Move to the left of .
Step 1.3
Differentiate using the chain rule, which states that is where and .
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Step 1.3.1
To apply the Chain Rule, set as .
Step 1.3.2
Differentiate using the Power Rule which states that is where .
Step 1.3.3
Replace all occurrences of with .
Step 1.4
Differentiate.
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Step 1.4.1
Multiply by .
Step 1.4.2
By the Sum Rule, the derivative of with respect to is .
Step 1.4.3
Differentiate using the Power Rule which states that is where .
Step 1.4.4
Since is constant with respect to , the derivative of with respect to is .
Step 1.4.5
Simplify the expression.
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Step 1.4.5.1
Add and .
Step 1.4.5.2
Multiply by .
Step 1.5
Simplify.
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Step 1.5.1
Apply the distributive property.
Step 1.5.2
Simplify the numerator.
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Step 1.5.2.1
Simplify each term.
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Step 1.5.2.1.1
Rewrite as .
Step 1.5.2.1.2
Expand using the FOIL Method.
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Step 1.5.2.1.2.1
Apply the distributive property.
Step 1.5.2.1.2.2
Apply the distributive property.
Step 1.5.2.1.2.3
Apply the distributive property.
Step 1.5.2.1.3
Simplify and combine like terms.
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Step 1.5.2.1.3.1
Simplify each term.
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Step 1.5.2.1.3.1.1
Multiply by .
Step 1.5.2.1.3.1.2
Move to the left of .
Step 1.5.2.1.3.1.3
Rewrite as .
Step 1.5.2.1.3.1.4
Rewrite as .
Step 1.5.2.1.3.1.5
Multiply by .
Step 1.5.2.1.3.2
Subtract from .
Step 1.5.2.1.4
Apply the distributive property.
Step 1.5.2.1.5
Simplify.
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Step 1.5.2.1.5.1
Multiply by .
Step 1.5.2.1.5.2
Multiply by .
Step 1.5.2.1.6
Apply the distributive property.
Step 1.5.2.1.7
Simplify.
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Step 1.5.2.1.7.1
Multiply by by adding the exponents.
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Step 1.5.2.1.7.1.1
Move .
Step 1.5.2.1.7.1.2
Multiply by .
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Step 1.5.2.1.7.1.2.1
Raise to the power of .
Step 1.5.2.1.7.1.2.2
Use the power rule to combine exponents.
Step 1.5.2.1.7.1.3
Add and .
Step 1.5.2.1.7.2
Multiply by by adding the exponents.
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Step 1.5.2.1.7.2.1
Move .
Step 1.5.2.1.7.2.2
Multiply by .
Step 1.5.2.1.8
Multiply by by adding the exponents.
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Step 1.5.2.1.8.1
Move .
Step 1.5.2.1.8.2
Multiply by .
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Step 1.5.2.1.8.2.1
Raise to the power of .
Step 1.5.2.1.8.2.2
Use the power rule to combine exponents.
Step 1.5.2.1.8.3
Add and .
Step 1.5.2.1.9
Multiply by .
Step 1.5.2.2
Combine the opposite terms in .
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Step 1.5.2.2.1
Subtract from .
Step 1.5.2.2.2
Add and .
Step 1.5.2.3
Add and .
Step 1.5.3
Factor out of .
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Step 1.5.3.1
Factor out of .
Step 1.5.3.2
Factor out of .
Step 1.5.3.3
Factor out of .
Step 1.5.4
Cancel the common factor of and .
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Step 1.5.4.1
Factor out of .
Step 1.5.4.2
Rewrite as .
Step 1.5.4.3
Factor out of .
Step 1.5.4.4
Rewrite as .
Step 1.5.4.5
Factor out of .
Step 1.5.4.6
Cancel the common factors.
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Step 1.5.4.6.1
Factor out of .
Step 1.5.4.6.2
Cancel the common factor.
Step 1.5.4.6.3
Rewrite the expression.
Step 1.5.5
Multiply by .
Step 1.5.6
Move the negative in front of the fraction.
Step 2
Find the second derivative of the function.
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Step 2.1
Since is constant with respect to , the derivative of with respect to is .
Step 2.2
Differentiate using the Quotient Rule which states that is where and .
Step 2.3
Differentiate using the Power Rule.
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Step 2.3.1
Multiply the exponents in .
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Step 2.3.1.1
Apply the power rule and multiply exponents, .
Step 2.3.1.2
Multiply by .
Step 2.3.2
Differentiate using the Power Rule which states that is where .
Step 2.3.3
Multiply by .
Step 2.4
Differentiate using the chain rule, which states that is where and .
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Step 2.4.1
To apply the Chain Rule, set as .
Step 2.4.2
Differentiate using the Power Rule which states that is where .
Step 2.4.3
Replace all occurrences of with .
Step 2.5
Simplify with factoring out.
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Step 2.5.1
Multiply by .
Step 2.5.2
Factor out of .
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Step 2.5.2.1
Factor out of .
Step 2.5.2.2
Factor out of .
Step 2.5.2.3
Factor out of .
Step 2.6
Cancel the common factors.
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Step 2.6.1
Factor out of .
Step 2.6.2
Cancel the common factor.
Step 2.6.3
Rewrite the expression.
Step 2.7
By the Sum Rule, the derivative of with respect to is .
Step 2.8
Differentiate using the Power Rule which states that is where .
Step 2.9
Since is constant with respect to , the derivative of with respect to is .
Step 2.10
Simplify terms.
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Step 2.10.1
Add and .
Step 2.10.2
Multiply by .
Step 2.10.3
Subtract from .
Step 2.10.4
Combine and .
Step 2.10.5
Move the negative in front of the fraction.
Step 2.11
Simplify.
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Step 2.11.1
Apply the distributive property.
Step 2.11.2
Simplify each term.
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Step 2.11.2.1
Multiply by .
Step 2.11.2.2
Multiply by .
Step 2.11.3
Factor out of .
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Step 2.11.3.1
Factor out of .
Step 2.11.3.2
Factor out of .
Step 2.11.3.3
Factor out of .
Step 2.11.4
Factor out of .
Step 2.11.5
Rewrite as .
Step 2.11.6
Factor out of .
Step 2.11.7
Rewrite as .
Step 2.11.8
Move the negative in front of the fraction.
Step 2.11.9
Multiply by .
Step 2.11.10
Multiply by .
Step 3
To find the local maximum and minimum values of the function, set the derivative equal to and solve.
Step 4
Find the first derivative.
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Step 4.1
Find the first derivative.
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Step 4.1.1
Differentiate using the Quotient Rule which states that is where and .
Step 4.1.2
Differentiate using the Power Rule.
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Step 4.1.2.1
Multiply the exponents in .
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Step 4.1.2.1.1
Apply the power rule and multiply exponents, .
Step 4.1.2.1.2
Multiply by .
Step 4.1.2.2
Differentiate using the Power Rule which states that is where .
Step 4.1.2.3
Move to the left of .
Step 4.1.3
Differentiate using the chain rule, which states that is where and .
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Step 4.1.3.1
To apply the Chain Rule, set as .
Step 4.1.3.2
Differentiate using the Power Rule which states that is where .
Step 4.1.3.3
Replace all occurrences of with .
Step 4.1.4
Differentiate.
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Step 4.1.4.1
Multiply by .
Step 4.1.4.2
By the Sum Rule, the derivative of with respect to is .
Step 4.1.4.3
Differentiate using the Power Rule which states that is where .
Step 4.1.4.4
Since is constant with respect to , the derivative of with respect to is .
Step 4.1.4.5
Simplify the expression.
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Step 4.1.4.5.1
Add and .
Step 4.1.4.5.2
Multiply by .
Step 4.1.5
Simplify.
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Step 4.1.5.1
Apply the distributive property.
Step 4.1.5.2
Simplify the numerator.
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Step 4.1.5.2.1
Simplify each term.
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Step 4.1.5.2.1.1
Rewrite as .
Step 4.1.5.2.1.2
Expand using the FOIL Method.
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Step 4.1.5.2.1.2.1
Apply the distributive property.
Step 4.1.5.2.1.2.2
Apply the distributive property.
Step 4.1.5.2.1.2.3
Apply the distributive property.
Step 4.1.5.2.1.3
Simplify and combine like terms.
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Step 4.1.5.2.1.3.1
Simplify each term.
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Step 4.1.5.2.1.3.1.1
Multiply by .
Step 4.1.5.2.1.3.1.2
Move to the left of .
Step 4.1.5.2.1.3.1.3
Rewrite as .
Step 4.1.5.2.1.3.1.4
Rewrite as .
Step 4.1.5.2.1.3.1.5
Multiply by .
Step 4.1.5.2.1.3.2
Subtract from .
Step 4.1.5.2.1.4
Apply the distributive property.
Step 4.1.5.2.1.5
Simplify.
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Step 4.1.5.2.1.5.1
Multiply by .
Step 4.1.5.2.1.5.2
Multiply by .
Step 4.1.5.2.1.6
Apply the distributive property.
Step 4.1.5.2.1.7
Simplify.
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Step 4.1.5.2.1.7.1
Multiply by by adding the exponents.
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Step 4.1.5.2.1.7.1.1
Move .
Step 4.1.5.2.1.7.1.2
Multiply by .
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Step 4.1.5.2.1.7.1.2.1
Raise to the power of .
Step 4.1.5.2.1.7.1.2.2
Use the power rule to combine exponents.
Step 4.1.5.2.1.7.1.3
Add and .
Step 4.1.5.2.1.7.2
Multiply by by adding the exponents.
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Step 4.1.5.2.1.7.2.1
Move .
Step 4.1.5.2.1.7.2.2
Multiply by .
Step 4.1.5.2.1.8
Multiply by by adding the exponents.
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Step 4.1.5.2.1.8.1
Move .
Step 4.1.5.2.1.8.2
Multiply by .
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Step 4.1.5.2.1.8.2.1
Raise to the power of .
Step 4.1.5.2.1.8.2.2
Use the power rule to combine exponents.
Step 4.1.5.2.1.8.3
Add and .
Step 4.1.5.2.1.9
Multiply by .
Step 4.1.5.2.2
Combine the opposite terms in .
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Step 4.1.5.2.2.1
Subtract from .
Step 4.1.5.2.2.2
Add and .
Step 4.1.5.2.3
Add and .
Step 4.1.5.3
Factor out of .
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Step 4.1.5.3.1
Factor out of .
Step 4.1.5.3.2
Factor out of .
Step 4.1.5.3.3
Factor out of .
Step 4.1.5.4
Cancel the common factor of and .
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Step 4.1.5.4.1
Factor out of .
Step 4.1.5.4.2
Rewrite as .
Step 4.1.5.4.3
Factor out of .
Step 4.1.5.4.4
Rewrite as .
Step 4.1.5.4.5
Factor out of .
Step 4.1.5.4.6
Cancel the common factors.
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Step 4.1.5.4.6.1
Factor out of .
Step 4.1.5.4.6.2
Cancel the common factor.
Step 4.1.5.4.6.3
Rewrite the expression.
Step 4.1.5.5
Multiply by .
Step 4.1.5.6
Move the negative in front of the fraction.
Step 4.2
The first derivative of with respect to is .
Step 5
Set the first derivative equal to then solve the equation .
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Step 5.1
Set the first derivative equal to .
Step 5.2
Set the numerator equal to zero.
Step 5.3
Divide each term in by and simplify.
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Step 5.3.1
Divide each term in by .
Step 5.3.2
Simplify the left side.
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Step 5.3.2.1
Cancel the common factor of .
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Step 5.3.2.1.1
Cancel the common factor.
Step 5.3.2.1.2
Divide by .
Step 5.3.3
Simplify the right side.
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Step 5.3.3.1
Divide by .
Step 6
Find the values where the derivative is undefined.
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Step 6.1
Set the denominator in equal to to find where the expression is undefined.
Step 6.2
Solve for .
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Step 6.2.1
Set the equal to .
Step 6.2.2
Add to both sides of the equation.
Step 7
Critical points to evaluate.
Step 8
Evaluate the second derivative at . If the second derivative is positive, then this is a local minimum. If it is negative, then this is a local maximum.
Step 9
Evaluate the second derivative.
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Step 9.1
Simplify the numerator.
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Step 9.1.1
Multiply by .
Step 9.1.2
Add and .
Step 9.2
Simplify the denominator.
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Step 9.2.1
Subtract from .
Step 9.2.2
Raise to the power of .
Step 9.3
Simplify the expression.
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Step 9.3.1
Multiply by .
Step 9.3.2
Divide by .
Step 10
is a local minimum because the value of the second derivative is positive. This is referred to as the second derivative test.
is a local minimum
Step 11
Find the y-value when .
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Step 11.1
Replace the variable with in the expression.
Step 11.2
Simplify the result.
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Step 11.2.1
Raising to any positive power yields .
Step 11.2.2
Simplify the denominator.
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Step 11.2.2.1
Subtract from .
Step 11.2.2.2
Raise to the power of .
Step 11.2.3
Divide by .
Step 11.2.4
The final answer is .
Step 12
These are the local extrema for .
is a local minima
Step 13