How do you find the critical numbers of e^(-x^2)?

1 Answer
May 15, 2017

Domain: (-oo, +oo)
Range: (0, 1]

Explanation:

f(x) = e^(-x^2)

lim_"x->+-oo" f(x) =0

and

f(x)>=0 forall x in RR

f'(x) = e^(-x^2) * (-2x) [Chain rule]

:. f'(x) = 0 at x=0

Hence: f_max = f(0) = e^0 = 1

Thus the domain of f(x) is (-oo,+oo) and
the range of f(x) is (0,1]

This can be seen by the graph of f(x) below:

graph{e^(-x^2) [-2.433, 2.435, -1.217, 1.216]}