Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2020/paper-1/14/b/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 1 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2020 Paper 1 14 b Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
The Hessian matrix has entriesAt each stationary point the mixed entry vanishes, so the signs of the diagonal entries directly classify the local quadratic change:In particular the two local minima are also global minima: the squared term is nonnegative and , with equality in both bounds exactly at . The local maximum at the origin is not a global maximum, since grows without bound as . The opposite diagonal signs at the other two points establish their saddle point character.
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