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h
f  (k)
lim 2 f  (k) 1
.
h0
2 f  (h) f  (0)
Since f  is continuous by hypothesis, it follows that this limit is indeed f  (0).
In the case when the function is a parabola, a calculation shows that, for fixed h, the
area of AB P is constant even as the point a varies (see Figure 2). This geometric
curiosity may well have been known to the ancient Greeks of course. What about the
converse question: for which functions is Area(a, h) independent of a? The theorem
we just proved provides an answer to that: only parabolas (and lines, in which case all
the triangles are degenerate and the areas vanish).

Figure 2.

Corollary. Let f have a continuous non-zero second derivative on an open interval I .


If, for all x in I , Area(x, h) depends only on h, then the graph of f is a parabola, and
conversely.
Acknowledgment. The author wishes to thank the referee for several suggested improvements.

References
1. W. Rudin, Principles of Mathematical Analysis, 3rd ed., McGraw-Hill, 1976.

Saddle Points and Inflection Points


Felix Martnez de la Rosa (felix.martinez@uca.es), Universidad de Cadiz, Cadiz,
Spain.
In the study of surfaces in multivariate calculus, we notice some similarities between saddle points on surfaces and inflection points on curves. In this note, we make
a direct connection between the two concepts.
Throughout, we assume that f (x, y) has continuous second partial derivatives in an
open set in the plane, and that (a, b) is a critical point in that set (that is, f x (a, b) =
f y (a, b) = 0).
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Let A = f x x (a, b), B = f x y (a, b), and C = f yy (a, b). The standard test for extrema
uses the discriminant D = AC B 2 : f has a relative maximum at (a, b) if D > 0 and
A < 0, and a minimum at (a, b) if D > 0 and A > 0. If D < 0, f is said to have a
saddle point at (a, b). (If D = 0, the test is inconclusive.)
In our analysis we find it useful to use the quadratic form
F(x, y) = Ax 2 + 2Bx y + C y 2 .
If (a, b) is a saddle point of f then F(x, y) is indefinite, this will be positive at some
points and negative at others.
Theorem. Let f be a function with continuous second partial derivatives in an open
set U in the plane and let (a, b) be a saddle point in U . Then there exists a continuous function y = g(x) with g(a) = b for which the projection on the x z-plane of the
intersection of the surface z = f (x, y) and the cylindrical surface y = g(x) has a
inflection point at x = a.
Proof. By hypothesis, there exist points (x1 , y1 ) and (x2 , y2 ) with x1 , x2  = 0 for
y1
which F(x1 , y1 ) > 0 and F(x2 , y2 ) < 0. Now let g1 (x) = (x a) + b and u 1 (x) =
x1
f (x, g1 (x)). Taking the second derivative, we find that
u 1 (a) = f x x (a, b) + 2 f x y (a, b)g1 (a) + f yy (a, b)(g1 (a))2 + f y (a, b)g1 (a)


y1
1
= 2 F(x1 , y1 ) > 0.
= F(1, g1 (a)) = F 1,
x1
x1
Thus u 1 (a) = 0 and u 1 (a) > 0.
Similarly, we let g2 (x) =
u 2 (a) = 0 and u 2 (a) < 0.
Now let

y2
(x a) + b and u 2 (x) = f (x, g2 (x)), and then
x2

g(x) =

g1 (x) if x < a
.
g2 (x) if x a

Then g is continuous at x = a and g(a) = b, and the theorem follows.


As a example, we consider the function f (x, y) = y 2 x 2 , which has a saddle
point at (0, 0) as shown in Figure 1. We let (x1 , y1 ) = (1, 2) and (x2 , y2 ) = (2, 1), so
F(x1 , y1 ) > 0 and F(x2 , y2 ) < 0. As in the proof of the theorem, let the function

g(x) =

2x if x < 0
.
1
x if x 0
2

In Figure 2 we show the intersection between the surfaces z = f (x, y) and y = g(x).
In Figure 3 we show this intersection from the point of view of the y-axis, and we can
observe that the projection on the x z-plane has a point of inflection at x = 0 (Figure 4).
The theorem gives a simple constructive method to obtain continuous functions,
g(x), that allows us to connect the saddle points of functions of two variables with
the inflection points of functions of one variable, showing that the behavior in both
VOL. 38, NO. 5, NOVEMBER 2007 THE COLLEGE MATHEMATICS JOURNAL

381

Figure 1.

Figure 2.
z

Figure 3.

Figure 4.

class of points is related. (The author has not found any references to this result in the
literature.)
A question about g(x ). For every choice of g1 and g2 with second-order derivative
y1
y2
continuous at a, verifying g1 (a) = g2 (a) = b, g1 (a) =
and g2 (a) = , the funcx1
x2
tion g(x) obtained in the proof satisfies the theorem but is not differentiable at x = a
y1
y2
y1
y2
1
because g1 (a) =
=
= g2 (a). We note that if
= , then 2 F(x1 , y1 ) =
x1
x2
x1
x2
x1
1
F(x2 , y2 ), and therefore F(x1 , y1 ) and F(x2 , y2 ) have the same sign.
x22
However, we can take the function y = x x 2 , differentiable at x = 0. In Figure 5
we show the intersection between the surfaces z = y 2 x 2 and y = x x 2 . In Figure
6 we show this intersection from the point of view of the y-axis, and in Figure 7 we
observe that the projection on the x z-plane has a point of inflection at x = 0.
We conclude by asking whether there always exists such a function g(x) that is
differentiable at x = a. We dont know the answer, but we count on some readers to
explore this question.
Acknowledgment. The author would like to thank the editor and an anonymous referee whose suggestions improved the clarity of this paper.

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Figure 5.

Figure 6.
z

Figure 7.

Conic Sections from the Plane Point of View


Sidney H. Kung (sidneykung@yahoo.com), Cupertino, CA 95014
We give an analytic proof of the fact that the conic sections are obtained by cutting
a cone at various angles. Our proof does not involve spheres or circles (see [1, 3, 4]),
but primarily depends upon the cutting plane itself.
Figure 1 shows a two-napped circular cone C which may be viewed as the result
of rotating the line g (generator) about the fixed line l (z-axis) while maintaining the
same angle () between g and l. We choose the intersection o of g and l as the origin.
Let P(x, y, z) be a point on the surface of C. From Figure 1 (see also [2, p. 751]), we
see that ar = cz . It follows that the equation of C is
x 2 + y 2 = z 2 tan2 .

(1)

Suppose a cutting plane E that does not contain o makes an angle with the z-axis.
The angle between E and the x y-plane is 2 . Let the equation of plane E be


y+h
(h  = 0).
(2)
z = tan
2
Substituting (2) into (1) gives the equation of the intersection of C and E:

2

y + h = 0,
x 2 + y 2 tan2 tan
2
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383

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