Maxima & minima resources

In this unit we show how differentiation can be used to find the maximum and minimum values of a function. Because the derivative provides information about the gradient or slope of the graph of a function we can use it to locate points on a graph where the gradient is zero. We shall see that such points are often associated with the largest or smallest values of the function, at least in their immediate locality. In many applications, a scientist, engineer, or economist for example, will be interested in such points for obvious reasons such as maximising power, or profit, or minimising losses or costs. (Mathtutor Video Tutorial) This resource is released under a Creative Commons license Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works and the copyright is held by Skillbank Solutions Ltd.