# Math Help - problem of increasing function

1. ## problem of increasing function

Find the range of the values for $c$ for which $f(x) = x^3 - 3x^2 + 3cx + 1$ is strictly increasing.

2. Find f'(x). For f(x) to be strictly increasing, f'(x) > 0 for all x.

3. yes i know that. but writing $f'(x) > 0$ leads to:-
$3x^2 - 6x + 3c > 0$. after this how can i solve this for $c$ ?

4. Use the quadratic formula, pay attention in particular to the discriminant.

Think about what it means to have f'(x) > 0. It means if you graph f'(x), you should have every single point above the x axis => no real roots.

So under what conditions does a quadratic equation not have real roots?

5. a quadratic equation does not have real roots when the discriminant is < zero. so, here, $4 < 4c$, ie, $c>1$. am i correct?

6. yes

7. but tell me one thing....here we are considering the non-existence of any real root of the quadratic equation because we have a $> 0$ condition. but in case we had the function decreasing, then also we would have considered the same criterion, that is, the non-existence of any real root; and hence the final answer (ie, c > 1) would be the same.

how can you explain this?

8. If we had a decreasing function (to be more precise, polynomials), you cannot have a positive leading coefficient for for f'(x). Simply because the limit as x gets very large will be positive infinity.

9. ok. so the fact is the original equation, ie, $f(x) = x^3 - 3x^2 + 3cx + 1$ can never be MONOTONICALLY DECREASING, but may be decreasing in some interval. is it?

ok. so the fact is the original equation, ie, $f(x) = x^3 - 3x^2 + 3cx + 1$ can never be MONOTONICALLY DECREASING, but may be decreasing in some interval. is it?