Subject: find minima and maxima points of a function
From: Robert Marik
Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2009 15:53:06 +0000 (UTC)
Leo Butler <l.butler <at> ed.ac.uk> writes:
>
>
> < Another problem: try the function x^2*log(x)/2-x^2/4
> < the point x=0 is not a local maximum (does not belong to the domain of the
> < function). The problem is that solve(x*log(x)=0,x) returns x=0 which does not
> < belong to the domain.
>
> x*log(x) has a limit as x->0, (0), so it is conventional to extend
> x*log(x) to include x=0 in its domain. I believe that maxima does this
> implicitly.
>
I don't think so. Try solve(x/sin(x),x)
wxmaxima (not the last version of Maxima, however) on our server returns x=0.
Robert
> Leo.
>