Relative Minimums and Maximums

Recall that we will often use the word extrema to refer to both
minimums and maximums. The definition of relative extrema for
functions of two variables is identical to that for functions of one
variable.
Definition

Recall that a critical point of the function f ( x ) was a number x

= c so that either f ′ (c ) = 0 or f ′ (c ) doesn’t exist. We have a
similar definition for critical points of functions of two variables.
Definition

Fact

Note that this does NOT say that all critical points are relative
extrema. It only says that relative extrema will be critical points

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of the function.
Critical points that are not relative maximum or minimum are
called saddle points.
So, if we have all the critical points of a function then we also
have every possible relative extrema for the function.
So, once we have all the critical points in hand all we will need to
do is test these points to see if they are relative extrema or not.
To determine if a critical point is a relative extrema (and in fact
to determine if it is a minimum or a maximum) we can use the
following fact.
Fact

Example 1 Find and classify all the critical points of

f ( x, y ) = 4 + x3 + y 3 − 3xy .
Determine the relative maximum or minimum of the given function.
Solution
We first need all the first order (to find the critical points) and
second order (to classify the critical points) partial derivatives so
let’s get those.

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Let’s first find the critical points. Critical points will be solutions
to the system of equations,

We can solve the first equation for y as follows,

3x 2 − 3 y = 0 ⇒ y = x2
Plugging this into the second equation gives,
3 ( x 2)2 − 3x = 3x ( x3 −1) = 0
From this we can see that we must have x = 0 or x = 1 . Now use
the fact that y = x 2 to get the critical points.
x = 0 : y = 02 ⇒ (0,0)
x = 1: y = 12 ⇒ (1,1)
So, we get two critical points. All we need to do now is 2classify
them. To do this we will need D. Here is the general formula for
D.
D ( x, y) = f xx ( x, y) f yy ( x, y) – [ f xy ( x, y)]2
=( 6x)( 6 y) – ( −3)2 = 36 xy − 9
To classify the critical points all that we need to do is plug in the
critical points and use the fact above to classify them.
At (0, 0) : D = D (0, 0)= −9 < 0
So, for (0, 0) D is negative and so this must be a saddle point.
At (1,1) : D = D (1,1) = 36 − 9 = 27 > 0,
f xx (1,1) = 6 > 0
For (1,1) D is positive and f xx is positive and so we must have
a relative minimum.
f 1,1  4 + (1)3 + (1)3 − 3(1)(1)= 3
(which is the value of the relative minimum of the given
function)

Example 2 Find and the extremum values of the function:

96
f ( x, y)= x 3 + 3xy 2 − 15x − 12 y
Solution
As with the first example we will first need to get all the first and
second order derivatives.
f x = 3 x 2 +3y 2− 15 f y= 6xy − 12
f xx = 6 x f yy = 6 x f x y = 6y
We’ll first need the critical points. The equations that we’ll need
to solve this time are,
3 x 2 +3y 2− 15= 0 6xy − 12= 0
,
First, from the second equation we get, x y −2 = 0
So, x = 2/y
To find the critical points we can plug this into the first equation
and solve for the remaining variable.
3 (2/y) 2 +3 y2 -15 = 0 ⇒ y4 -5y2+4= 0 ⇒
( y 2 −1) ( y 2 −4) = 0⇒ ( y −1) ( y +1) ( y-2 ) ( y+2 ) = 0
∴ y = 1, y =-1, y = 2, y = -2
∵ x = 2/y so we have the following four critical points:
(2, 1), (-2, -1), (1,2), ( −1,-2)
Now all we need to do is classify the critical points. To do this
we’ll need the general formula for D.
D x, y   f xx f yy   f xy   6 x 6 x   6 y   36 x 2  36 y 2
2 2

So, it looks like we have the following classification of each of

these critical points.
At 2,1 : D 2,1  362 2  3612  108  0,
f xx  62   12  0
∴ The function has a relative minimum value at the point
(2,1) of value
f ( 2, 1)= (2) 3 + 3(2)(1)2 – 15(2) − 12 (1)= -28
Similarly
At - 2,-1 : D  2,1  36 2 2  36 12  108  0,

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 f xx  6 2   12  0
∴ The function has a relative maximum value at the point (-
2,-1) of value
f ( -2, -1)= (-2) 3+3(-2)(-1)2–15(-2)−12(-1)=+28
Also
At 1,2  : D1,2  361  362  108  0
2 2

∴The function has a sadlle point at the point (1,2)

At - 1,-2  : D  1,2   36 12  36 2 2  108  0 ∴ The
function has a sadlle point at the point (-1,-2)

Example 3 Find and classify all the critical points for

f ( x, y)= 3x 2 y + y 3 − 3x 2 − 3 y 2 + 2
Solution
As with the first example we will first need to get all the first and
second order derivatives.
f x = 6xy − 6x y= 3x 2 + 3 y 2 − 6 y
f xx = 6 y – 6 f yy = 6 y – 6 f x y = 6x
We’ll first need the critical points. The equations that we’ll need
to solve this time are,
6xy − 6x = 0 , 3x 2 + 3 y 2 − 6 y = 0
First, from the first equation we get,
6 x ( y −1) = 0→ x = 0 or y = 1
To find the critical points we can plug these (individually) into
the second equation and solve for the remaining variable.
x = 0 : 3 y 2 − 6 y = 3 y ( y – 2 ) = 0 ⇒ y = 0, y = 2
y = 1 : 3x 2 − 3 = 3 ( x 2 −1) = 0 ⇒ x = −1, x = 1
So, if x = 0 we have the following critical points, (0, 0),
(0, 2) and if y = 1 the critical points are, (1,1), ( −1,1)
Now all we need to do is classify the critical points.
To do this we’ll need the general formula for D.

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So, it looks like we have the following classification of each of
these critical points.

So, it looks like we have the following classification of each of

these critical points
(0,0) : Relative Maximum
(0,2) : Relative Minimum
(1,1) : Saddle Point
(-1,1): Saddle Point
Here is a graph of the surface.
Example 4 Determine the point on the plane
4 x − 2 y + z = 1 that is closest to the point ( −2, −1, 5) .
Solution
First, let’s suppose that ( x, y, z) is any point on the plane. The
distance between this point and the point in question, ( −2, −1, 5 ) ,
is given by the formula,

There are a couple of issues with this equation. First, it is a

function of x, y and z and we can only deal with functions of x
and y at this point. However, this is easy to fix. We can solve the
equation of the plane to see that, z = 1 − 4x + 2
y
Plugging this into the distance formula gives,

So, let’s notice that finding the minimum value of d will be

equivalent to finding the minimum value of d 2 .

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So, let’s instead find the minimum value of
f ( x, y ) = d 2 = ( x + 2)2 + ( y + 1)2 +( −4 − 4x + 2 y)2
Now, we are being asked to find the closest point on the plane to
( −2, −1, 5) and that is not really the same thing as what we’ve been
doing in this section. In this section we’ve been finding and
classifying critical points as relative minimums or maximums and
what we are really asking is to find the smallest value the function
will take, or the absolute minimum. Hopefully, it does make
sense from a physical standpoint that there will be a closest point
on the plane to ( −2, −1, 5 ) . Also, this point should be a relative
minimum.
We’ll need the derivatives first.
f x = 2 ( x + 2 ) +2( −4 )( −4 − 4 x +2 y) = 36 + 34 x −16 y
f y =2 ( y + 1) + 2( 2 ) ( −4 − 4x + 2 y ) = −14 −16x + 10 y
f xx = 34 f yy = 10 f xy = −16
Now, before we get into finding the critical point let’s compute D
quickly. D = 34 (10 ) – ( −16 )2 = 84 > 0
So, in this case D will always be positive and also notice that f
xx = 34 > 0 is always positive and so any critical points that we
get will be guaranteed to be relative minimum.
Now let’s find the critical point(s). This will mean solving the
system.
36 + 34x −16 y = 0, −14 −16 x + 10 y = 0
To do this we can solve the first equation for x.

Now, plug this into the second equation and solve for y.

34
Back substituting this into the equation for x gives x  
21

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 2
1

So, it looks like we get a single critical point :   34 , 25  . Also,

 21 21 
since we know this will be a relative minimum and it is the only
critical point we know that this is also the x and y coordinates of
the point on the plane that we’re after. We can find the z
coordinate by plugging into the equation of the plane as follows,

So, the point on the plane that is closest to ( −2, −1, 5 ) is,
 34 25 107 
  , , 
 21 21 21 

Lagrange Multipliers

In this section we are going to take a look at another way of

optimizing a function subject to given constraint(s).
We want to optimize (find the minimum and maximum) of
a function, f ( x, y, z) , subject to the constraint g ( x, y, z) = c.
Method of Lagrange Multipliers for the conditional
Extremum
1. Solve the following system of equations.
∇f ( x, y, z ) = λ ∇g ( x, y, z),
g ( x, y, z ) = c
2. Plug in all solutions, ( x, y, z ) , from the first step into f ( x, y, z )
and identify the minimum and maximum values, provided
they exist.
The constant, λ , is called the Lagrange Multiplier.
Notice that the system of equations actually has four equations,
we just wrote the system in a simpler form. To see this let’s take
the first equation and put in the definition of the gradient vector
to see what we get.
(f x , f y , f z) =λ ( g x , g y , g z) = ( λ g x , λ g y , λ g z)

In order for these two vectors to be equal the individual

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components must also be equal.

So, we actually have three equations here.

fx = λgx , fy = λgy , fz = λgz
These three equations along with the constraint, g ( x, y, z ) = c,
give four equations with four unknowns x, y, z, and λ.
As a final note, we also need to be careful with the fact that in
some cases minimums and maximums won’t exist even though
the method will seem to imply that they do. In every problem
we’ll need to go back and make sure that our answers make sense.
Example 1 Find the dimensions of the box with largest volume
if the total surface area is 64 cm2.
Solution
We first need to identify the function that we’re going to optimize
as well as the constraint. Let’s set the length of the box to be x,
the width of the box to be y and the height of the box to be z. Let’s
also note that because we’re dealing with the dimensions of a box
it is safe to assume that x, y, and z are all positive quantities.
We want to find the largest volume and so the function that we
want to optimize is given by,
f ( x, y, z) = xyz
Next we know that the surface area of the box must be a constant
64. So this is the constraint. The surface area of a box is simply
the sum of the areas of each of the sides so the constraint is given
by,
2xy + 2xz + 2 yz = 64 ⇒ xy + xz + yz = 32
Note that we divided the constraint by 2 to simplify the equation
a little. Also, we get the function g ( x, y, z) from this.
g ( x, y, z ) =xy + xz + yz
Here are the four equations that we need to solve.

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There are many ways to solve this system. We’ll solve it in the
following way. Let’s multiply equation (1) by x, equation (2) by
y and equation (3) by z. This gives,

Now notice that we can set equations (5) and (6) equal. Doing
this gives,

This gave two possibilities. The first, λ = 0 is not possible since

if this was the case equation (1) would reduce to yz = 0
⇒ y=0 or z=0
Since we are talking about the dimensions of a box neither of
these are possible so we can discount λ = 0 . This leaves the
second possibility.
xz = yz
Since we know that
z≠0
(again since we are talking about the dimensions of a box) we can
cancel the z from both sides. This gives,
x=y (8)
Next, let’s set equations (6) and (7) equal. Doing this gives,

As already discussed we know that λ = 0 won’t work and so this

leaves, the second possibility.

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 xz= yz
We can also say that z ≠ 0 since we are dealing with the
dimensions of a box so we must have,
z=x (9)
Plugging equations (8) and (9) into equation (4) we get,

However, we know that y must be positive since we are talking

about the dimensions of a box. Therefore the only solution that
makes physical sense here is
x = y = z = 3.266
So, it looks like we’ve got a cube here.
Notice that we never actually found values for λ in the above
example. This is fairly standard for these kinds of problems. On
occasion we will need its value to help solve the system, but even
in those cases we won’t use it past finding the point.
Example 2 Find the maximum and minimum of f(x,y) = 5x-3y
subject to the constraint x2+y2 =136
Solution
Here is the system that we need to solve.

Notice that, as with the last example, we can’t have λ = 0 since

that would not satisfy the first two equations. So, since we know
that λ ≠0 we can solve the first two equations for x and y
respectively. This gives,

Plugging these into the constraint gives,

We can solve this for λ .

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Now, that we know λ we can find the points that will be potential
maximums and/or minimums.

To determine if we have maximums or minimums we just need

to plug these into the function.
Here are the minimum and maximum values of the function.
f ( −10, 6 ) = −68 Minimum at ( −10, 6 )
f (10, −6 ) = 68 Maximum at (10, −6 )
Example 3 Find the maximum and minimum values of f (x, y,z )
= xyz subject to the constraint x + y + z = 1 . Assume that x,
y,z ≥ 0
Solution
First note that our constraint is a sum of three positive or zero
number and it must be 1. Therefore it is clear that our solution
will fall in the range 0 ≤ x, y, z ≤ 1.
Here is the system of equation that we need to solve.
yz = λ (10)
xz = λ (11)
xy = λ (12)
x+ y+ z =1 (13)
Let’s start this solution process off by noticing that since the first
three equations all have λ they are all equal. So, let’s start off by
setting equations (10) and (11) equal.

So, we’ve got two possibilities here. Let’s start by assuming that
z = 0 . In this case we can see from either equation (10) or (11)
that we must then have λ = 0 . From equation (12) we see that
this means that xy = 0. This in turn means that either x = 0 or y
=0
So, we’ve got two possible cases to deal with there. In each case
two of the variables must be zero. Once we know this we can
plug into the constraint, equation (13), to find the remaining

105
value.

So, we’ve got two possible solutions (0,1, 0) and (1, 0,0).
Now let’s go back and take a look at the other possibility, y = x .
We also have two possible cases to look at here as well.
This first case is x = y = 0 . In this case we can see from the
constraint that we must have z = 1 and so we now have a third
solution (0,0,1) .
The second case is x = y ≠ 0 . Let’s set equations (11) and (12)
equal.

Now, we’ve already assumed that x ≠ 0 a nd so the only possibility is that

z = y . However, this
x= y=z
Now, we’ve already assumed that x ≠ 0 and so the only possibility
is that z = y . However, this also means that
x= y=z
Using this in the constraint gives,

1 1 1
So, the next solution i s  , , 
3 3 3
We got four solutions by setting the first two equations equal. To
completely finish this problem out we should probably set
equations (10) and (12) equal as well as setting equations (11) and
(12) equal to see what we get. Doing this gives,

Both of these are very similar to the first situation that we looked
at and we’ll leave it up to you to show that in each of these cases
we arrive back at the four solutions that we already found.
So, we have four solutions that we need to check in the function
to see whether we have minimums or maximums.

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So, in this case the maximum occurs only once while the
minimum occurs three times.
Note as well that we never really used the assumption that x, y, z
≥ 0 in this problem. This assumption is here mostly to make sure
that we really do have a maximum and a minimum of the
function. Without this assumption it wouldn’t be too difficult to
find points that give both larger and smaller values of the
functions. For example.

With these examples you can clearly see that it’s not too hard to
find points that will give larger and smaller function values.
However, all of these examples required negative values of x, y
and/or z to make sure we satisfy the constraint. By eliminating
these we will know that we’ve got minimum and maximum
values by the Extreme Value Theorem.
Example 4 The temperature T at any point in space is:
T (x, y,z) = 400xyz2 . Find the highest temperature on the
surface of the unit sphere S: x2 + y2 + z2 =1 .
Solution
The first step is to find all the critical points of the function
T(x,y,z) Here are the three first order partial derivatives.
Tx  400 yz 2 , Ty  400 xz 2 , Tz  800 xyz
S x  2 x, S y  2 y, Sz  2z
At this point we proceed with Lagrange Multipliers as follows:
So, we actually have three equations here.
Tx = λSx , Ty = λSy , Tz = λSz
These three equations along with the constraint, S ( x, y, z ) = 1,
give four equations with four unknowns x, y, z, and λ.
So, here is the system of equations that we need to solve.

107
 400 yz 2  2 x, T y  400 xz 2  2 y, Tz  800 xyz  2 z
, x2  y2  z2  1
From the first 2 equations we get,
400 yz 2 400 xz 2
 ,  x2  y 2
2x 2y
From the second and the third equations we get,
400 xz 2 800 xyz
 ,  z2  2 y2
2y 2z
Substituting in to the equation of the sphere (the constraint) we
get:
1
x 2  y 2  z 2  1  y 2  y 2  2 y 2  1  4 y 2  1  y   Then
2
1 1 1
for y x , z
2 2 2
To find the maximum and minimum we need to simply plug these
two points in the function.
2
 1  1  1 
T  400     50
 2  2  2 
The final topic that we need to discuss in this section is what to
do if we have more than one constraint. We will look only at two
constraints, but we can naturally extend the work here to more
than two constraints.
We want to optimize f ( x, y, z) subject to the constraints g( x, y,
z) = c and h( x, y, z) = k
The system that we need to solve in this case is,

So, in this case we get two Lagrange Multipliers. Also, note that
the first equation really is three equations as we saw in the

108
previous examples. Let’s see an example of this kind of
optimization problem.

109
Example 5 Find the maximum and minimum of f( x,y,z) =4xy-
2z subject to the constraints 2x – y - z = 2 and x2+y2 = 1
Solution
Here is the system of equations that we need to solve.

First, from equation (16) we get λ = 2 . Plugging this into

equation (14) and equation (15) and solving for x and y
respectively gives,

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Now, plug these into equation (18).

111
112
So, we have two cases to look at here. First, let’s see what we
get when   13 we know that,

In this case Plugging these into equation (17) gives,

So, we’ve got one solution.

113
Let’s now see what we get if we take    13 . Here we have,

114
and there’s a second solution.

 2 3 7 
So, we have a maximum at   , ,2   and a minimum at
 13 13 13 
 2 3 7 
 , , 2  
 13 13 13 

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 EXERCISES
3- Find the extrema and saddle points of each of the following functions:
a) Fx, y, z   x 2  2x  y 2  6 y  12
b) Fx, y, z   x 2  4 y 2  x  2 y
c) Fx, y, z   x 2  2xy  3y 2
d) Fx, y, z   x 3  3xy  y3
1 1
e) Fx, y, z   x 2  2xy  y 2  2  8y
2 2
1 1 3
f) Fx, y, z   x 3  y3  x 2  4 y
3 3 2
g) Fx , y   x sin y
4- Use Lagrange multipliers to find the extrema of the function F subject
to the given condition g:
a) Fx , y, z   x  y  z , gx, y, z   x 2  y 2  z 2  25  0
b) Fx, y, z   x 2  y 2  z 2 , gx, y, z   x  y  z  1  0
c) Fx, y, z   x  2 y  3z , gx, y, z   4x 2  y 2  z  0
5- Find the point on the sphere x 2  y 2  z 2  9 that is closest to the
point P2,3,4  .
6- Prove that, the closed rectangular box of fixed volume and minimal
surface area is a cube and hence find its dimensions.
7- Find a vector in three dimensions having length equal to 6 such that
the sum of its components is maximum.
8- An open-topped rectangular box is to have total surface area 300 cm2.
Find its dimensions that maximize its volume.
9- A closed rectangular box having a volume of the k cm3 is to be
constructed. If the cost per cm2 of the material for the sides, bottom,
and top is a, b, and c, respectively, Find the box's dimensions that
minimize its cost.
10- A container with a closed top and fixed surface area is to be
constructed in the shape of a right circular cylinder. Find the relative
dimensions that maximize the volume.
11- Find the dimensions of the rectangular box of maximum volume, with
faces parallel to the coordinate planes, that can be inscribed in the
ellipsoid 4x 2  4 y 2  z 2  36 .
25- Find the extreme values of the function

116
 f ( x, y)  xy  x 2  y 2  2x  2 y  4
26- Find the extreme values of the function f ( x, y)  3x 3  y 2  9x  4 y
27- Find the greatest cylinder that can be inscribed in a hollow sphere of
radius a.
28- Obtain the extremum value of the function f ( x, y)  2x 2  3y 2 subject
to the constraint 2x  y  1
29- Find the points lying on the circle x 2  y 2  2x  y  1 which make the
function f ( x, y)  4x  y  y 2 max. or min.
30- The temperature at any point on the surface of the sphere
x 2  y 2  z 2  25 is given by T  400 xyz 2 Find the highest
temperature on the sphere.
31- A point moves on the circle x 2  y 2  4x  8y  15  0 . Find its
position such that its distance from the origin is max. or min.
32- A point moves on the sphere x 2  y 2  z 2  x  2 y  3z  28 . Find its
position such that its distance from the origin is max. or min.
33- A point moves on the surface z  x 2 y  4 . Find its position such that
its distance from the origin is min. What is this min. Distance?
34- What is the greatest area that a rectangle can have if the length of its
diagonal is 4?
35- Find the three numbers such that the sum of their cubes is 24, and the
product of the first and the square of the second and cube of the third
is maximum.
36- Find the greatest and smallest values of the function f ( x, y)  xy on the
x 2 y2
ellipse  1
8 2
1 1
37- Find the max. and the min. values of the function f ( x, y)  
x y
1 1
subject to the constraint 2  2  1
x y
38- If f ( x, y, z)  4x 2  y 2  5z 2 Find the point on the plane
2x  3y  4z  12 at which the function f ( x, y, z) has its least value.
39- Find the dimensions of a rectangular parallopiped box with constant
surface area such that its volume is max. in the following two cases:-
a) The box is closed b) The box is open.
40- Find the dimensions of a rectangular parallopiped box with constant
volume such that its surface area is min. in the following two cases:-

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 a) The box is closed b) The box is open.
41- Find the dimensions of a right circular cylinder with constant volume
such that its surface area is min. in the following two cases:- a) The
cylinder is closed b) The cylinder is open.
42- Find the dimensions of a right circular cylinder with constant surface
area such that its volume is max. in the following two cases:- a) The
cylinder is closed b) The cylinder is open.
43- Find the volume of the greatest cone which may be inscribed inside a
hollow sphere of radius a.
44- Find the points lying on the sphere x 2  y 2  z 2  9 such that their
distances from the point (4,-8,8) are extremum.
45- Prove that the min. value of u  x 2  y 2  z 2 , where ax  by  cz  p
is p /(a 2  b 2  c2 )

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