Question

Give the value of the maximum or minimum of the function f(x) = x2 - 1.
max or min =

Answer 1

This is a parabola that is concave upward since the coefficient of the x^2 term is positive. It's vertex is (0,-1) and that is the minimum

Answer 2

\(x^2 \ge 0 \implies x^2-1 \ge -1\). From that we can say that f has a minimum \(-1\) and no maximum value.