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Concavity and the Second Derivative Test

Definition. Let f be differentiable on an open interval I. The graph of f is concave upward on I if tex2html_wrap_inline66 is increasing on the interval or tex2html_wrap_inline68 is positive in the interval I.

The graph of f is concave downward on I if tex2html_wrap_inline66 is decreasing on the interval of tex2html_wrap_inline68 is negative in the interval I.

Definition. Let f be a function such that tex2html_wrap_inline68 changes signs at x=c and f(c) is defined, then we call (c,f(c)) to be the point of inflection. Note that if (c,f(c)) is a point of inflection of f, then either tex2html_wrap_inline96 or tex2html_wrap_inline98 is undefined.