Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2016/paper-1/9/solution

Rewrite the rational function as . It is undefined at , with the vertical asymptote , and tends to the horizontal asymptote as . At the pole, from the left and from the right.
Its derivative is
vanishing only at . Since and near zero, this is a stationary inflection point, not an extremum. Thus
The graph increases on each side of the vertical asymptote. The left branch lies above , while the right branch lies below it and crosses the origin horizontally.
Figure 1.
The rational-function graph, its two asymptotes, and its stationary inflection at the origin
. Details.

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