Posted by Joel on October 16, 2002 at 00:44:29:
In Reply to: Calculus f' and f'' posted by Rowena Garrison on October 15, 2002 at 23:38:13:
: I have a Calculus question here that I need help on.
: Given a function, f(x), such that f'(a)=0 and f''(a)=8, what does this tell about y vs x?
f'(a)=0 tells you that the slope of the graph of y=f(x) is 0 at the point x=a (in other words, a tangent to the curve at that point is horizontal).
f"(a)= 8 (really, any positive number) tells you that the curve is concave upward at the point x=a.