"""Original Q6 sketch; PNG basename is written to the current directory. Tested with Python 3.14.4, NumPy 2.3.5 and Matplotlib 3.10.7. """ from pathlib import Path import matplotlib matplotlib.use("Agg") import matplotlib.pyplot as plt import numpy as np def main(): fig, axes = plt.subplots(1, 2, figsize=(9, 3.8), layout="constrained") fig.patch.set_facecolor("white") for ax, interval, limits, title in zip( axes, [(-1, 1), (-1, 0.2)], [(-2, 85), (-0.15, 4)], ["Requested interval", "Close view of the flat minimum"], ): x = np.linspace(*interval, 800) ax.set_facecolor("white") ax.plot(x, (1 + 2 * x) ** 4, color="#16648b", linewidth=2.4) ax.axhline(0, color="#666666", linewidth=0.7) ax.axvline(0, color="#666666", linewidth=0.7) ax.scatter([-0.5, 0], [0, 1], color="#ad3e2b", s=25, zorder=4) ax.set(xlim=interval, ylim=limits, xlabel="$x$", ylabel="$y$", title=title) ax.grid(alpha=0.18) ax.spines[["top", "right"]].set_visible(False) axes[0].scatter([-1, 1], [1, 81], color="#16648b", s=25) axes[0].annotate("(1, 81)", (1, 81), xytext=(-52, -3), textcoords="offset points") axes[1].annotate("(-1/2, 0)", (-0.5, 0), xytext=(-28, 14), textcoords="offset points") axes[1].annotate("(0, 1)", (0, 1), xytext=(-47, 7), textcoords="offset points") fig.suptitle(r"$y=(1+2x)^4$") fig.savefig(Path("paper-1-quartic.png"), dpi=160, facecolor="white") plt.close(fig) if __name__ == "__main__": main()