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The knee of a curve can be defined as a vertex of the graph. This corresponds with the graphical intuition (it is where the curvature has a maximum), but depends on the choice of scale. The term "knee" as applied to curves dates at least to the 1910s, [1] and is found more commonly by the 1940s, [2] being common enough to draw criticism.
There are continuous curves on which every arc (other than a single-point arc) has infinite length. An example of such a curve is the Koch curve. Another example of a curve with infinite length is the graph of the function defined by f(x) = x sin(1/x) for any open set with 0 as one of its delimiters and f(0) = 0.
The graph of a function with a horizontal (y = 0), vertical (x = 0), and oblique asymptote (purple line, given by y = 2x) A curve intersecting an asymptote infinitely many times In analytic geometry , an asymptote ( / ˈ æ s ɪ m p t oʊ t / ) of a curve is a line such that the distance between the curve and the line approaches zero as one or ...
[56]: 37 In analytic geometry, the study of graphs of functions, calculus is used to find high points and low points (maxima and minima), slope, concavity and inflection points. Calculus is also used to find approximate solutions to equations; in practice, it is the standard way to solve differential equations and do root finding in most ...
The calculus of variations may be said to begin with Newton's minimal resistance problem in 1687, followed by the brachistochrone curve problem raised by Johann Bernoulli (1696). [2] It immediately occupied the attention of Jacob Bernoulli and the Marquis de l'Hôpital , but Leonhard Euler first elaborated the subject, beginning in 1733.
For a curve, it equals the radius of the circular arc which best approximates the curve at that point. For surfaces, the radius of curvature is the radius of a circle that best fits a normal section or combinations thereof. [1] [2] [3]
A continuous function () on the closed interval [,] showing the absolute max (red) and the absolute min (blue). In calculus , the extreme value theorem states that if a real-valued function f {\displaystyle f} is continuous on the closed and bounded interval [ a , b ] {\displaystyle [a,b]} , then f {\displaystyle f} must attain a maximum and a ...
Fermat's theorem is central to the calculus method of determining maxima and minima: in one dimension, one can find extrema by simply computing the stationary points (by computing the zeros of the derivative), the non-differentiable points, and the boundary points, and then investigating this set to determine the extrema.