Horizontal tangent line to a cubic:
Where does
have a tangent line parallel to the x axis?
Since the x axis, a horizontal line, has a slope of 0, the desired parallel line tangent to the given curve, will also have a slope of 0. This slope is also equal to the value of the derivative of y at the point of tangency (xT, yT). Hence, at this point we have
, or
, or ![]()
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Now we can substitute this value of x into the original equation to find the corresponding y coordinate:
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Hence the points of tangency are
and
. See the graph.