Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2014/paper-1/16/a/solution

The gradient equations factor as
For they give . Otherwise , which gives and the matching . Thus there are exactly four stationary points.
The Hessian matrix is
At it is , and at it is . At and its determinant is . The second-derivative test therefore yields
The extrema are local: along the cubic is unbounded both above and below.

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