Abstract
This chapter explains how the derivative of a function is a useful tool for studying the behavior of the function itself. It discusses where the function increases and decreases and where it assumes maximal and minimal values. When the functions studied measure economic behavior, this mathematical analysis can be used to determine how profit can be maximised, how cost can be minimised, and how taxation affects an economy. Information about the graph of a function measuring economic phenomena enables one to estimate general economic trends. Knowing where a function increases and decreases, where it is concave upwards or concave downwards, and where the location of its relative extrema and inflection points are essential to accurately sketch any curve y =f(x). It is also important to know what f(x) looks like at intervals containing its points of discontinuity. The computation of infinite limits indicates what the behavior of the function is as x → ∞ and as x → – ∞.
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