Two young mathematicians discuss how to sketch the graphs of functions.
- Devyn
- Riley, I’ve been thinking about the derivative.
- Riley
- It’s all about change. It’s some ‘‘change-detector’’ tool for math.
- Devyn
- I know! What’s crazy is that you can use it as a tool for sniffing out dirt on functions.
- Riley
- First tells us increasing or decreasing.
- Devyn
- Then tells us concavity.
- Riley
- From just that we know all local maxes and mins.
- Devyn
- And if we use limits, we can find any asymptotes!
- Riley
- You know, I’d like to make up a procedure based on all these facts, that would tell me what the graph of any function would look like.
- Devyn
- Me too! Let’s get to work!