A curve has equation y= e^x -5x, Find the coordinates of the stationary point and show it is a minimum point

differentiating ex gives ex (need to know this), differentiating -5x gives -5 (step the power of the x down by 1 and multiply the original power with the coefficient, power of the x was 1 so becomes 0, x0 = 1)

so dy/dx = ex -5, a stationary point is when dy/dx = 0 so to find the x coordinate we say ex -5 =0, then solve for x

ex =5

x = ln(5) (we would leave it like this usually)

then put the x value back in to find the y value:  y = eln(5) -5 (ln(5))

y = 5 - 5ln(5) (we would leave it in the exact form usually)

so the stationary point is ( ln(5), 5-5ln(5) ) (remember it asked for coordinates)

to prove this is a minimum point we need the second derivative:

differentiating ex-5 gives ex, put in x=ln(5) and we get that d2y/dx2 = 5 at the stationary point, as this is greater than 0 it is a minimum point.

JC

Related Maths A Level answers

All answers ▸

Find the solutions of the equation 3cos(2 theta) - 5cos(theta) + 2 = 0 in the interval 0 < theta < 2pi.


Q15 from Senior Mathematical Challenge 2018: A square is inscribed in a circle of radius 1. An isosceles triangle is inscribed in the square. What is the ratio of the area of this triangle to the area of the shaded region? (Requires Diagram))


find the derivative of the following equation: a) y = 5x^3 - 4x^-4 + xb


How does a hypothesis test work?