Thread: Trig question

Hey guys, I need some help with this question:

The flight pattern of a certain bee can be represented by the function f(x) = cos^2x-sinx +4. The range of the graph that represents this flight pattern is a < y <b. The value of "b", correct to the nearest hundredth is _______?

I have no idea what to do...

We need to find the maximum value of the function
Since we have a sum of trigonometric functions and a constant, we know that the function is periodic and so don't have to consider endpoints: the stationary points of the function are all you need. Simply find them using the first derivative then substitute to find the maximum.