Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2004/paper-2/4/b/ii/solution

The fourth Chebyshev polynomial eliminates the parameter:
Its derivatives are and . The interior stationary points are a local maximum at , and two minima at . At the maximum , while at either minimum .
The two inflection points are
The curvature changes sign there. The endpoint limits are , at ; they are excluded from the open curve. The central maximum and the two minima are also the attained global extremal values on that open curve.
Figure 1.
Parametric curves after eliminating the cosine parameter
. Original plots of the parabola and fourth Chebyshev polynomial on their open parameter domains. Arrows show traversal from right to left; the quartic's extrema and inflection points are marked. Details.

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