# Sketching a graph based on certain conditions

1. ### BlackMamba

187
Sketching a graph based on certain conditions....

Hello,

I'm supposed to sketch a graph of f based on condtions I'm given. However some of the conditions I'm given I'm not sure exactly what is supposed to happen. A little help would be greatly appreciated.

Here are the condtions, some of which I think I know what f is supposed to do, some I do not:

$f'(1) = f'(-1) = 0$ : Does this mean there are horizontal asymptotes at y = 1 and y = -1?
$f'(x) < 0$ if $|x| < 1$ : I believe f is decreasing here on (-1, 1)
$f'(x) > 0$ if $1 < |x| < 2$ : I believe f is increasing here on (-2, -1) and (1, 2)
$f'(x) = -1$ if $|x| > 2$ : I don't have any guesses for this one.
$f''(x) < if -2 < x < 0$ : I believe f is concave down on (-2, 0)
inflection point (0, 1) : I believe concavity changes at this point.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Last edited: Nov 27, 2005
2. ### BlackMamba

187
Any suggestions at all would be greatly appreciated. I'm confident that I can draw the final graph, but it's just determining what f is doing based on the conditions given of f'(x) and f''(x).

3. ### HallsofIvy

40,960
Staff Emeritus
Not asymptotes but horizontal tangent lines at x= 1 and x= -1. You don't know what f(1) and f(-1) are.

Yes, and so you now know that f(-1)>= f(1).

Yes, and so there is a local maximum at x=-1, a local minimum at x= 1

This is the most specific one of all! Since f'(x) is a constant for |x|> 2, y= f(x) is a line with slope -1 for x< -2 and x> 2.

Yes, the curve is concave down between -2 and 0 and concave up between 0 and 2. Your graph should be a straight line with slope -1 for x< -2, then an "s" curve going up to a maximum at x= -1 then down to a minimum at x= 1, then up to x= 2 where the graph changes to a straight line with slope -1.
The only y-value you are given is that f(0)= 1 since we are told that there is an inflection point at (0,1). There are, of course, an infinite number of graphs, y= f(x), that satisfy these conditions.

4. ### BlackMamba

187
Thanks again, HallsofIvy. I appreciate you giving the extra explanations. They help me understand these concepts a little more.