Question

How do you find absolute extrema for a function?
f(x)= (8+x)/(8-x); Interval of [4,6]

Answer 1

`\bf f(x)=\cfrac{8+x}{8-x}\implies \cfrac{dy}{dx}=\stackrel{quotient~rule}{\cfrac{1(8-x)-(8+x)(-1)}{(8-x)^2}}\implies \cfrac{dy}{dx}=\cfrac{16}{(8-x)^2}`

now, we get critical points from zeroing out the derivative, and also from zeroing out the denominator, but those at the denominator are critical points where the function is not differentiable, namely a sharp spike or cusp or an asymptote.

so, from zeroing out the derivative we get no critical points there, from the denominator we get x = 8, but can't use it because f(x) is undefined.

therefore, we settle for the endpoints, 4 and 6,

f(4) =3 and f(6) = 7

doing a first-derivative test, we see the slope just goes up at both points and in between, but the highest is f(6), so the absolute maximum is there, while we can take say f(4) as the only minimum and therefore the absolute minumum as well.