Worked solution
A cubic determined by two points and two stationary inputs
The graph of , where is a cubic polynomial, passes through the points , and has two stationary points at and .
Find the equation of the curve and hence find its -intercept. marks
[2013/CJC/Promo/3]
CJC · Review Problems · Question 7
Answer
; -intercept (3 s.f.).
Four equations for four coefficients
Let . The points give and . Its derivative is . Stationarity at gives , equivalently ; at it gives .
Solve and find the intercept
The source GC solution is , so . Solving gives to 3 significant figures, the printed answer. As an authored uniqueness check, , with and , so both stationary values are positive and only the leftmost increasing section crosses the axis. The intercept coordinate is approximately .
Common mistakes
A stationary point at x=−2 supplies both a point condition and a zero-derivative condition; they are distinct equations.
Solution notes
Also printed as Review 7 in both CJC Linear Equations lecture copies: question PDF page 14 / printed 174; answer PDF 15 / Student printed 175, Teacher visible footer 15 (extracted 175). Compared in evidence/review-cjc-linear-equations-lecture.md; the repeated asks, tables and marks retain this existing identity.