5.11 Part 2

Characteristics of Polynomial Functions

Identifying Turning Points

2

• Turning Points
• The y-coordinate of a turning point is a local maximum of the function when the point is higher than all nearby points
• The y-coordinate of a turning point is a local minimum of the function when the point is lower than all nearby points
• The graph of every polynomial of degree n has at most n-1 turning points
• If a polynomial of degree n has n distinct real zeros, then its graph has exactly n-1 turning points