The Closed Interval Method (Introduction)
This applet was designed to help you intuitively (and informally) discover a very important concept in calculus.
Definition: A CRITICAL NUMBER of a function f is any input value c in the domain of f for which either f'(c)=0 or f'(c) does not exist.
Directions:
There are graphs of 4 functions shown below. The names of these functions are c, h, f, and g.
You should note there is a point plotted on each function.
Move each of these points around to answer the following key question AND the questions that appear below this applet.
KEY QUESTION: Find all critical numbers of each function whose graph is given below.