How to find where the function is decreasing/increasing/concave/convex f(x)=2/(1+x^2)?

Brynn Collins

Brynn Collins

Open question

2022-08-20

How to find where the function is decreasing/increasing/concave/convex f ( x ) = 2 1 + x 2 ?
I need to find where this function is increasing, decreasing, concave and convex. I've found it's derivative:
f ( x ) = 4 x ( 1 + x 2 ) 2
Now you're supposed to make either f ( x ) > 0 when it's increasing and f ( x ) < 0 when it's decreasing, but that gives:
Increasing: x < 0. Decreasing: x > 0.
But what does that actually mean? It's just confusing, usually when I solve these you get 2 solutions, so it's for example increasing on the interval of (-2,2). What does this one tell me? What's the easiest way to find where this function is increasing and decreasing?
Then I also did the second derivative, which is:
f ( x ) = 4 ( 3 x 2 1 ) ( 1 + x 2 ) 3
How does this all help me find my solution?

Answer & Explanation

Catherine Kirby

Catherine Kirby

Beginner2022-08-21Added 10 answers

Step 1
1. The endpoints ± are always present. Your results say that f is increasing on ( , 0 ) and decreasing on ( 0 , ).
Step 2
2. For convexity / concavity you need to do the same thing to f′′, f > 0 implies convexity and f < 0 implies concavity. Note that the numerator is the only interesing component of f′′ because the denominator is always 1, so it doesn't change the sign. Now to find the critical points, solve for 4 ( 3 x 2 1 ) = 0 x 2 1 3 = 0 x = ± 1 3

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