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Teabags
06-12-2012, 11:38 PM
Struggling alittle with this question.
Any help would be lovely!

1. Find the range of values of a for which y= x - a/x has no stationary points.

Kardan is usually the Hx Maths wizard.

Kardan
06-12-2012, 11:54 PM
Struggling alittle with this question.
Any help would be lovely!

1. Find the range of values of a for which y= x - a/x has no stationary points.

Kardan is usually the Hx Maths wizard.

First find the derivative of the function, so:

dy/dx = 1 + a/x^2

Equate this to 0 to find the stationary points

1 + a/x^2 = 0

Rearrange for a to find the values for a for which there are stationary points:

a/x^2 = -1

a = -x^2

So when a = -x^2 we have stationary points, so the range of values for a that has no stationary points is:

a > -x^2 and a < -x^2

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