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Finding global maxima and minima is the goal of mathematical optimization. If a function is continuous on a closed interval, then by the extreme value theorem, global maxima and minima exist. Furthermore, a global maximum (or minimum) either must be a local maximum (or minimum) in the interior of the domain, or must lie on the boundary of the ...
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.
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 ...
Intuitively, the curvature describes for any part of a curve how much the curve direction changes over a small distance travelled (e.g. angle in rad/m), so it is a measure of the instantaneous rate of change of direction of a point that moves on the curve: the larger the curvature, the larger this rate of change.
A saddle point (in red) on the graph of z = x 2 − y 2 (hyperbolic paraboloid). In mathematics, a saddle point or minimax point [1] is a point on the surface of the graph of a function where the slopes (derivatives) in orthogonal directions are all zero (a critical point), but which is not a local extremum of the function. [2]
Low-order polynomials tend to be smooth and high order polynomial curves tend to be "lumpy". To define this more precisely, the maximum number of inflection points possible in a polynomial curve is n-2, where n is the order of the polynomial equation. An inflection point is a location on the curve where it switches from a positive radius to ...
Near a strict local maximum in the interior of the domain of a function, the function must be concave; as a partial converse, if the derivative of a strictly concave function is zero at some point, then that point is a local maximum. Any local maximum of a concave function is also a global maximum.
The canonical optimization variant of the above decision problem is usually known as the Maximum-Cut Problem or Max-Cut and is defined as: Given a graph G, find a maximum cut. The optimization variant is known to be NP-Hard. The opposite problem, that of finding a minimum cut is known to be efficiently solvable via the Ford–Fulkerson algorithm.