Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 1 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2023 / Paper 2 / 5 / Solution

The fundamental theorem of calculus gives $y^{\prime }(x)=e^{-x^2}>0$, so the graph is strictly increasing. Its second derivative is $y^{\prime \prime }(x)=-2x{e}^{-x^2}$: it curves upward for $x<0$ and downward for $x>0$, with an inflection point at zero.

By the Gaussian integral and the evenness of its integrand,Thus the only axis intersection is $(0,\sqrt{\pi }/2)$; there is no finite $x$-axis intersection because the integral is strictly positive for every finite $x$. The error function gives $y(x)=\frac{\sqrt{\pi }}{2}(1+\mathrm{erf}x)$.