Behavior of accumulation functions
You may be shown a graph or an expression for and asked about the behavior of an accumulation function
A helpful way to think about these problems is the same way you think about derivative-graph questions: if you know the derivative, what can you conclude about the original function? Here, plays the role of the derivative because
Treat these problems like the ones from section 5.4: given the graph of the derivative, what can you conclude about the original function?
As a reminder, here are a few facts:
- If , then is increasing.
- If , then is decreasing.
- has a local min where changes from negative to positive.
- has a local max where changes from positive to negative.
- You can also figure out the concavity of since .
Examples
Shown below is the graph of :
Let be the function defined by
Fill out the table with the intervals or coordinates where has or is…
Interval or ordered pair Increasing Decreasing Relative min Relative max Absolute min Absolute max Concave up Concave down Inflection point(s)
Solutions
a) Increasing/decreasing
Because
is increasing where and decreasing where .
From the graph, (above the -axis) on
From the graph, (below the -axis) on
b) Relative min/max
A relative minimum of occurs where changes from negative to positive. Since , this happens where changes from negative to positive.
From the graph, changes from negative to positive at , so has a relative minimum at .
To write the ordered pair, compute the -value:
Interpret the definite integral as signed area between the graph of and the -axis from to . The regions are:
- A triangle with signed area
- A semi-circle with signed area
Because the graph is below the -axis on this interval, these contribute negative signed area, so
Then
So the ordered pair for the relative minimum is
A relative maximum of occurs where changes from positive to negative.
From the graph, this occurs at , so has a relative maximum at .
Compute the -value:
So the ordered pair for the relative maximum is
c) Absolute min/max
From part b), the relative minimum is and the relative maximum is .
To find absolute extrema on the interval shown, use the extreme value theorem: check the endpoints and any interior critical points. Here, we compare , , and the relative extrema values.
Compute the endpoint values.
For :
For :
Comparing values, the absolute maximum occurs at and the absolute minimum occurs at :
and
d) Concave up/down
Concavity comes from the second derivative:
So is concave up where (where is increasing) and concave down where (where is decreasing).
From the graph, is increasing on
so is concave up on those intervals.
Note that is undefined at and , and at . That’s why we use open intervals.
From the graph, is decreasing on
so is concave down on those intervals.
d) Inflection point(s)
Inflection points of occur where
changes sign. That can happen where or where is undefined, as long as the sign of changes.
From the graph:
- at .
- is undefined at sharp corners at and .
Check sign changes in (increasing vs. decreasing behavior of ):
- Around , changes from increasing to decreasing, so changes from positive to negative. This gives an inflection point of .
Compute the ordered pair:
Inflection point:
- Around , changes from decreasing to increasing, so changes from negative to positive. This gives an inflection point of .
Compute the ordered pair:
Inflection point:
- Around , is increasing on both sides, so stays positive. Not an inflection point.
- Around , goes from increasing to flat () and then continues in a way that does not create a sign change in . Not an inflection point.
- Around , goes from flat () to decreasing, but this does not create a sign change from negative to positive or positive to negative across in the way needed here. Not an inflection point.
The graph of is shown below:
Let
Find:
a) Where has a relative max.
b)
c)
d)
Solutions
a) Where has a relative max
A relative maximum of occurs where changes from increasing to decreasing. That means we look for where changes from positive to negative.
Differentiate using the FTC and the chain rule:
So when . From the graph, crosses the -axis at inputs and (so and ).
Now check the sign change:
- At input , changes from negative to positive, which would make change from decreasing to increasing (a relative minimum).
- At input , changes from positive to negative, which would make change from increasing to decreasing (a relative maximum).
Use the input and solve for :
So has a relative maximum at . To get the ordered pair, we compute in part b).
b)
Evaluate the accumulation function:
From to , the regions consist of:
- A trapezoid with signed area
- A triangle with signed area
Add the signed areas:
Combining with part a), has a relative max at .
c)
From part a),
So
This matches the fact that is a relative extremum of .
d)
Differentiate again. Since
we get
Then
is the slope of the graph of at input . At , the graph lies on the line segment between and , so the slope is
Therefore , and

