# 11-13 math-156 lab

## 1770 days ago by beckstranda0808

Sage Homework: Derivatives and Graphs

In class, we have outlined a procedure for finding pertinent information about the graph of a function by using Calculus.  The "problem" with this is of course the fact that the algebraic aspects can be challenging for a complicated function.  Here is an example of how we can use computer to help us with the mathematics.﻿

Example 1: Consider the function﻿  f(x) = 3x^5-30x^4+70x^3+60x^2-225x+5﻿.  Our goal is to get a decent graph of this function.  Let's just see what Sage gives us on a standard window.﻿

f(x) = 6*x^5-15*x^4-830*x^3+1260*x^2+25920*x+15 plot(f, (x, -20, 20))

That's not very enlightening, is it?  Let's see if the graph has any bumps?﻿

So, let's compute the derivative:﻿

fp(x) = derivative(f, x) show(fp)

Now we can try to see when this is zero.  Note that the x in the following line tells Sage what to solve for and the double equal sign == is what Sage uses to test equality. The single equals sign = is used for assignment.﻿

solve(fp(x) == 0, x)

In this case, Sage gives us exact answers.  Indeed, it's possible to factor this.﻿

factor(fp)

Task 1﻿: Draw the chart of increasing/decreasing for f(x).﻿

We can easily use Sage to compute test values.  For example, if we want to compute the derivative when x = 0, we simply execute the following:﻿

print fp(-10) print fp(-5) print fp(0) print fp(5) print fp(10)
 111720 -22680 25920 -12480 42120 111720 -22680 25920 -12480 42120

You should see that the graph of f(x) increases, then decreases, then increases, then decreases, then increases. Correct? So, we have relative minima at x = 1 and x = 5.  And relative maxima at x = -1 and 3.  We can use Sage to get the function values:﻿

print f(-8) print f(-3) print f(4) print f(9)
 40207 -46668 73039 -13836 40207 -46668 73039 -13836

Now, how about concavity?  We need the second derivative.  We compute that with the following command:﻿

fpp = derivative(fp, x) show(fpp)

Again, let's try finding the zeros.﻿

solve(fpp(x) == 0, x)
print N(-10) print N(0) print N(3) print N(10)
 -10.0000000000000 0.000000000000000 3.00000000000000 10.0000000000000 -10.0000000000000 0.000000000000000 3.00000000000000 10.0000000000000
print fpp(-10) print fpp(0) print fpp(3) print fpp(10)
 -85680 2520 -10800 54720 -85680 2520 -10800 54720

Task 2: Draw the chart of concavity.  You should see that the graph is concave down, then concave up, then down, and finally up again.  So x = 2-\sqrt(5), x = 2, x = 2+\sqrt(5) are all inflection points.  Again, let's evaluate them.﻿

This is an exact value, but we can have Sage give us an approximate value by using the numerical evaluation function N:

If we want more accuracy, we can use:

print N(f(-6)) print N(f(0.5)) print N(f(7))
 3039.00000000000 13185.5000000000 23332.0000000000 3039.00000000000 13185.5000000000 23332.0000000000

With all of this information, we see that the "interesting" stuff happens between x = -1 and x = 5 with y-values between -245 and 187. So, let's try graphing the function with a slightly larger window:﻿

plot(f(x), (x, -6, 7), ymin=3039, ymax=23332)

Indeed, we see all the interesting behavior of the graph.﻿

We can even add a few points to the graph to highlight all the interesting points.﻿

p = plot(f(x), (x, -6, 7), ymin=3039, ymax=23332); p += point( [(3039)], color='red'); p += point( [(-8, 40207)], color='red'); p += point( [(4, 73039)], color='red'); p += point( [(3,-46668)], color='green'); p += point( [(9, -13836)], color='green'); p += point( [(-6, 3039)], color='black'); p += point( [(.5, 13185.5)], color='black'); p += point( [(7, 23332)], color='black'); show(p);
 Traceback (click to the left of this block for traceback) ... TypeError: 'sage.rings.integer.Integer' object does not support indexing Traceback (most recent call last): p += point( [(-6, 3039)], color='black'); File "", line 1, in File "/tmp/tmpiasO5Y/___code___.py", line 4, in p += point( [(_sage_const_3039 )], color='red'); File "/home/sageserver/sage/sage-5.0-stock/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/sage/plot/point.py", line 312, in point return point3d(points, **kwds) File "/home/sageserver/sage/sage-5.0-stock/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/sage/plot/plot3d/shapes2.py", line 1022, in point3d A = sum([Point(z, size, **kwds) for z in v]) File "/home/sageserver/sage/sage-5.0-stock/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/sage/plot/plot3d/shapes2.py", line 680, in __init__ self.loc = (float(center[0]), float(center[1]), float(center[2])) TypeError: 'sage.rings.integer.Integer' object does not support indexing