Consider a function
in one dimension. If
has a relative extremum at
, then either
or
is not differentiable at
. Either the first or second derivative
tests may be used to locate relative extrema of the first kind.
A necessary condition for to have a minimum (maximum)
at
is
and
A sufficient condition is and
(
). Let
,
, ...,
, but
. Then
has a local maximum at
if
is odd and
, and
has a local minimum at
if
is odd and
. There is a saddle
point at
if
is even.