Thayer sometimes finds it difficult to understand what his instructor is saying. He raises his hand in class and asks his instructor to elaborate on what was just said, but it rarely helps. What should Thayer do to overcome this obstacle?

Answer:     the interval on which the curve is concave up is  (-∞, -1/2)======    we find the interval where this curve is concave up by finding the interval in which the 2nd derivative is positive.differentiate the curve equation with respect to x    let the function f denote be the anti-derivative of the inside expression, i.e. a function such that .then use the fundamental theorem of calculus:     differentiate again to get second derivative. we can use chain rule with 1/x as the outside function and 1 + x + x² as the inside function    find critical numbers of the second derivative. these numbers are where the 2nd deriv. is undefined or zero.where the 2nd derivative is zero: set (d²y/dx²) to equal 0 and solve for x    where the 2nd derivative is undefined: if the denominator is equal to zero, the derivative will be undefeined. attempting to solve the equation    1 + x + x² = 0results in a discriminant of      meaning that the equal 1 + x + x² = 0 has no real solutions and therefore will never equal zero.======our only critical number is x = -1/2.this forms two intervals to test the sign for: (-∞, -1/2) and (-1/2, ∞)test values into the 2nd derivative for (-∞, -1/2)if we try x = -1, we get      so the since the 2nd derivative of the curve is positive on the interval  (-∞, -1/2), the curve is concave up on (-∞, -1/2)test values into the 2nd derivative for (-1/2, ∞)if we try x = 0, we get      so the since the 2nd derivative of the curve is positive on the interval  (-∞, -1/2), the  curve is concave down on (-∞, -1/2).the interval on which the curve is concave up is  (-∞, -1/2)

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