Does the derivative of a differentiable function attain its maximum and minimum

analysiscalculusreal-analysis

Let $g:[a,b] \to \mathbb{R}$ be a differentiable function. Is it true that there exist $m,M\in[a,b]$ s.t. $$g'(m)\le g'(x)\le g'(M) \,\,\,\forall x \in [a,b]$$

I think this is intuitively true since we can always find a steepest tangent of the graph of a differentiable function on the closed and bounded interval. But I don't know how to prove it. I tried to use Extreme value theorem. But the problem is that $g'(x):[a,b] \to \mathbb{R}$ may not be continuous.

Any idea about this question?

Best Answer

Edit: there are indeed differentiable functions with bounded derivative that still fail to attain extrema.

For example

$$ f(x) := \begin{cases} x^2(x-1) \sin (1 /x) & \text{ if } 0<x\leq 1\\ 0 & \text{ if } x= 0 \end{cases} $$ has derivative

$$ f'(x) := \begin{cases} (3x^2-2x) \sin (1 /x) - (x-1)\cos(1/x)& \text{ if } 0<x\leq 1\\ 0 & \text{ if } x= 0 \end{cases}. $$

As $x\searrow 0$ the maxima and minima tend to $\pm 1$ but can never attain it. See graph below ($f$ on the left; $f'$ on the right). And you can play around with the exponent and the other term to create different envelopes, of course.

enter image description here


Original: adapted from Pugh's Real Mathematical Analysis, p.157: Consider $$ f(x) := \begin{cases} x^{3 /2} \sin (1 /x) & \text{ if } 0<x\leq 1\\ 0 & \text{ if } x= 0 \end{cases} $$ whose derivative is $0$ at $x=0$ and $$ f'(x) = \frac{3}{2}\sqrt{x} \sin (1 /x) - \frac{1}{\sqrt{x}}\cos (1 /x) \qquad \text{for } x \neq 0. $$ That $1 /\sqrt{x}$ blows up.