The above ideas have a graphical interpretation. Associated with any function f(t) is a graph in which the horizontal axis represents the variable t and the vertical axis represents the value of the function. Choose a value for t, calculate f(t), and draw the corresponding point; now repeat for all appropriate t. The result is a curve, the graph of f (see part A of the figure). For example, if f(t) = t², then f(t) = 0 when t = 0, f(t) = 1 when t = 1, f(t) = 4 when t = 2, f(t) = 9 when t = 3, and so on, leading to the curve shown in part B of the figure, known as a parabola.

Expression (3), the numerical calculation of the average speed traveled between times t and t + h, also can be represented graphically. The two times can be plotted as two points on the curve, as shown in the figure, and a line can be drawn joining the two points. This line is called a secant, or chord, of the curve, and its slope corresponds to the change in distance with respect to time—that is, the average speed traveled between t and t + h. If, as h becomes smaller and smaller, this slope tends to a limiting value, then the direction of the chord stabilizes and the chord approximates more and more closely the tangent to the graph at t. Thus, the numerical notion of instantaneous rate of change of f(t) with respect to t corresponds to the geometric notion of the slope of the tangent to the graph.

The graphical interpretation suggests a number of useful problem-solving techniques. An example is finding the maximum value of a continuously differentiable function f(x) defined in some interval a ≤ x ≤ b. Either f attains its maximum at an endpoint, x = a or x = b, or it attains a maximum for some x inside this interval. In the latter case, as x approaches the maximum value, the curve defined by f rises more and more slowly, levels out, and then starts to fall. In other words, as x increases from a to b, the derivative f′(x) is positive while the function f(x) rises to its maximum value, f′(x) is zero at the value of x for which f(x) has a maximum value, and f′(x) is negative while f(x) declines from its maximum value. Simply stated, maximum values can be located by solving the equation f′(x) = 0.

It is necessary to check whether the resulting value genuinely is a maximum, however. First, all of the above reasoning applies at any local maximum—a place where f(x) is larger than all values of f(x) for nearby values of x. A function can have several local maxima, not all of which are overall (“global”) maxima. Moreover, the derivative f′(x) vanishes at any (local) minimum value inside the interval. Indeed, it can sometimes vanish at places where the value is neither a maximum nor a minimum. An example is f(x) = x³ for −1 ≤ x ≤1. Here f′(x) = 3x² so f′(0) = 0, but 0 is neither a maximum nor a minimum. For x < 0 the value of f(x) gets smaller than the value f(0) = 0, but for x > 0 it gets larger. Such a point is called a point of inflection. In general, solutions of f′(x) = 0 are called critical points of f.

Local maxima, local minima, and points of inflection are useful features of a function f that can aid in sketching its graph. Solving the equation f′(x) = 0 provides a list of critical values of x near which the shape of the curve is determined—concave up near a local minimum, concave down near a local maximum, and changing concavity at an inflection point. Moreover, between any two adjacent critical points of f, the values of f either increase steadily or decrease steadily—that is, the direction of the slope cannot change. By combining such information, the general qualitative shape of the graph of f can often be determined.

For example, suppose that f(x) = x³ − 3x + 2 is defined for −3 ≤ x ≤ 3. The critical points are solutions x of 0 = f′(x) = 3x² − 3; that is, x = −1 and x = 1. When x < −1 the slope is positive; for −1 < x < 1 the slope is negative; for x > 1 the slope is positive again. Thus, x = −1 is a local maximum, and x = 1 is a local minimum. Therefore, the graph of f slopes upward from left to right as x runs from −3 to −1, then slopes downward as x runs from −1 to 1, and finally slopes upward again as x runs from 1 to 3. In addition, the value of f at some representative points within these intervals can be calculated to obtain the graph shown in the figure.