Staff

Please select a resource from the list below.

Quick Reference

• Maximum and minimum values 1
  This leaflet explains how to determine the maximum and minimum points on a graph. Maximum and minimum values are also known as turning points.
• Maximum and minimum values 2
  When the location of any turning point on a graph has been determined, it is useful to know whether we are dealing with a maximum or a minimum point.
• Maximum and minimum values 3
  This leaflet explains a more accurate text for the nature of a turning point, than simply examining the gradient pattern.

Teach Yourself

• Applications of differentiation - maxima and minima
  This unit explains how differentiation can be used to locate turning points. It explains what is meant by a maximum turning point and a minimum turning point.

Test Yourself

• Diagnostic Test - Maxima and Minima
• Exercise - Maxima and Minima

Video

A transcript of each video should be available in the Teach Yourself section above.

(This site uses Windows Media technologies from Microsoft to deliver video streams. Streaming facilities are kindly provided by University of Portsmouth Creative Technologies, http://stream.port.ac.uk)

These videos require Windows Media Player (v10).

Please note: You may experience trouble with more recent upgrades to Internet Explorer (now v.7) and Media Player (now v.11). These no longer support streaming from the mms servers used by mathcentre, so we are recommending that you uninstall IE7 (IE6 lies underneath) and replace the new version of WMP with the fully functioning v.10 (you may need to find a download via google after uninstalling v.11). All those that have done this have reported back that everything is working again.

• Maxima and Minima
  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)