The Mean Value Theorem and Rolle's theorem
Problem 3.502 · medium
Verify that \( \displaystyle f(x) = - 4 x^{2} + 2 x + 2 \) satisfies the hypotheses of the Mean Value Theorem on \( \displaystyle [0, 3] \), and find every number \( \displaystyle c \) the theorem guarantees.
- f is a polynomial, so it is continuous on [a, b] and differentiable on (a, b): the hypotheses hold.
- \[ - \frac{\left. - 4 x^{2} + 2 x + 2 \right|_{\substack{ x=0 }}}{3} + \frac{\left. - 4 x^{2} + 2 x + 2 \right|_{\substack{ x=3 }}}{3} = -10 \]The slope of the secant line.✓ Proved
- \[ \frac{d}{d x} \left(- 4 x^{2} + 2 x + 2\right) = 2 - 8 x \]Differentiate.✓ Proved
- \[ -10 \]c = 3/2 solves f′(c) = -10 and lies in (0, 3).✓ Proved
Answer \( c = \frac{3}{2} \)
Lines: 3 proved, 1 not checked. The answer was also checked a second way, without looking at the solution. The reviewers disagree about how one step is explained; every verdict is in the receipt.
The full receipt
| Line | Status | Checked by | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Not checked | — | a sentence; read, not computed |
| 2 | ✓ Proved | sympy 1.14.0 | simplify(lhs - rhs) reduced to 0 |
| 3 | ✓ Proved | sympy 1.14.0 | simplify(lhs - rhs) reduced to 0 |
| 4 | ✓ Proved | sympy 1.14.0 | simplify(lhs - rhs) reduced to 0 |
| answer, a second way | ✓ Checked independently | sympy 1.14.0 + mpmath 1.3.0 | each c checked by a difference quotient; a scan of (a, b) finds no others |
Reviewers
gpt-oss:20b: passqwen3.6:27b-mlx: fail (error) — The solution fails to explicitly solve the equation f'(c) = -10 to find c, instead merely stating that c=3/2 is a solution. It also omits the crucial step of verifying that this c lies within the open interval (0, 3), which is required by the Mean Value Theorem.
Every verdict on record (4)
qwen3.6:27b-mlx: fail (error) 2026-10-08 — The solution fails to explicitly solve the equation f'(c) = -10 to find c, instead merely stating that c=3/2 is a solution. It also omits the crucial step of verifying that this c lies within the open interval (0, 3), which is required by the Mean Value Theorem.gpt-oss:20b: pass 2026-10-08gpt-oss:20b: pass 2026-10-08qwen3.6:27b-mlx: fail (error) 2026-10-08 — The calculation of the secant slope is incorrect; it computes (f(0) + f(3))/3 instead of (f(3) - f(0))/(3 - 0). The correct slope is -14, not -10.
Proved: SymPy reduced the difference between the two sides to zero. Checked independently: a separate
method, named above, confirmed it. Checked numerically: the two sides agree at every sampled point, which is evidence,
not proof. Reviewed: a model or a person read it; that is all a sentence can have. Solution by
generator:structured/mean_value_theorem, checked 2026-10-08 with SymPy 1.14.0.