The Mean Value Theorem and Rolle's theorem
Problem 3.602 · medium
Verify that \( \displaystyle f(x) = 4 - 4 x^{2} \) satisfies the hypotheses of the Mean Value Theorem on \( \displaystyle [-2, 1] \), 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.
- \[ - \frac{\left. 4 - 4 x^{2} \right|_{\substack{ x=-2 }}}{3} + \frac{\left. 4 - 4 x^{2} \right|_{\substack{ x=1 }}}{3} = 4 \]The slope of the secant line.✓ Proved
- \[ \frac{d}{d x} \left(4 - 4 x^{2}\right) = - 8 x \]Differentiate.✓ Proved
- \[ 4 \]c = -1/2 solves f′(c) = 4 and lies in (-2, 1).✓ Proved
Answer \( c = - \frac{1}{2} \)
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) = 4 for c, instead just stating that c = -1/2 is a solution. It also fails to verify that this c lies within the open interval (-2, 1), which is a required part of the theorem's conclusion.
Every verdict on record (4)
gpt-oss:20b: pass 2026-10-12qwen3.6:27b-mlx: fail (error) 2026-10-12 — The solution fails to explicitly solve the equation f'(c) = 4 for c, instead just stating that c = -1/2 is a solution. It also fails to verify that this c lies within the open interval (-2, 1), which is a required part of the theorem's conclusion.gpt-oss:20b: pass 2026-10-12qwen3.6:27b-mlx: fail (error) 2026-10-12 — The solution calculates the secant slope as 4, but the correct slope is (f(1)-f(-2))/(1-(-2)) = (0-0)/3 = 0. Consequently, the equation f'(c)=4 is incorrect; it should be f'(c)=0, yielding c=0.
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 2026-10-12 with SymPy 1.14.0.