Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-year-1-of-the-computer-science-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2016/discrete-mathematics-continuous-mathematics-and-probability-resit/6/a/solution
Past exam of the year 1 of the computer science course of the University of Oxford 2016 Discrete mathematics, continuous mathematics and probability (resit) 6 a Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-31
The critical points satisfy both first partial derivatives equal to zero:Substitute into the second equation to get . Thus the candidates are and .
The Hessian matrix and its determinant areAt the determinant is , so the Hessian matrix is indefinite and the point is a saddle point. At the determinant is and , so the Hessian matrix is positive definite and the point is a strict local minimum, with valueThere is no local maximum. Along , is unbounded above and below, so there are no global extrema either.
New to topics? Read the docs here!