Differentiation maths question

Hi, please could I have some help on this question. I don’t understand what the writing means because when I substitute values for n both odd and even, I still get one answer?
Here is the question: https://ibb.co/3CN3mXL
Thanks

Reply 1

mqb2766

Original post by Ashirs

Assuming the writing isnt yours, you could play with it a bit in desmos and think about what it might mean / different behaviour between odd and even
https://www.desmos.com/calculator/fnb3t1nwxc

To be a bit more mathematical, the quesrtion is asking about the number of stationary points and it should be obvious that they must occur around 0, so think about (sketch) what the basic function x^n is and how the -x term affects it, think about factorising, ... Similarly for the derivative.