Math 2250 Exam #2 Practice Problem Solutions
p
1. Let u(x) = f (x) and suppose f (3) = 1, f 0 (3) = 8, and f 00 (3) = −2. What is the value of u00 (3)?
Answer: Using the Chain Rule,
1
(f (x))−1/2 f 0 (x).
2
Hence, using the Chain Rule and the Product Rule,
1
(f 0 (x))2
f 00 (x)
1
−3/2 0
0
−1/2 00
00
p
− (f (x))
f (x)f (x) + (f (x))
f (x) = −
+
.
u (x) =
2
2
4(f (x))3/2
2 f (x)
u0 (x) =
Therefore,
u00 (3) = −
2. Let f (x) =
1
2
f 00 (3)
−2
82
(f 0 (3))2
+p
+ √ = −17.
=−
3/2
4(f (3))
4(1)3/2
2 1
f (3)
sin(x2 ) cos(x2 ). What is f 0
q
5π
6
?
Answer: Using the Product and Chain Rules,
f 0 (x) =
1
cos(x2 ) · 2x · cos(x2 ) + sin(x2 ) · 2x · (− sin(x2 )) = x cos2 (x2 )−x sin2 (x2 ) = x cos2 (x2 ) − sin2 (x2 ) .
2
Therefore,
r
f
0
5π
6
!
r
5π
5π
2
=
cos
− sin
6
6


r
√ !2 2
5π 
3
1 
=
−
−
6
2
2
r
5π 3 1
=
−
6 4 4
r
1 5π
=
.
2
6
5π
6
2
3. Suppose you’ve leaned a 10 foot ladder against a vertical wall, but haven’t properly secured the bottom
of the ladder. Before you can climb onto the ladder, the bottom starts to slide away from the wall at
3 ft/sec. How fast does the top of the ladder slide down the wall when the bottom is 6 feet from the
wall?
Answer: The ladder, the floor and the wall form a right triangle whose hypotenuse is the ladder.
Hence, if the ladder touches the wall h(t) feet above the floor and touches the floor f (t) feet away from
the wall at time t, we have that
102 = f (t)2 + h(t)2 .
Also, we know that, at the time of interest (which I’ll call t0 ), f (t0 ) = 6 and f 0 (t0 ) = 3. Our goal is to
find h0 (t0 ).
To do so, first note that, at this time,
102 = f (t0 )2 + h(t0 )2 = 62 + h(t0 )2 ,
So
h(t0 ) =
√
100 − 36 =
1
√
64 = 8.
Now, differentiate both sides of the expression 102 = f (t)2 + h(t)2 with respect to t:
0 = 2f (t) · f 0 (t) + 2h(t) · h0 (t).
Therefore, at the moment of interest,
0 = 2f (t0 ) · f 0 (t0 ) + 2h(t0 ) · h0 (t0 ) = 2(6)(3) + 2(8)h0 (t0 ) = 36 + 16h0 (t0 )
Hence,
h0 (t0 ) = −
so the top of the ladder is sliding down the wall at
9
36
=− ,
16
4
9
4
ft/sec at this instant.
4. What is the tangent line to x3 + y 3 = 6xy at (3, 3)?
Answer: Differentiating both sides of the equation with respect to x yields
dy
dy
3x2 + 3y 2
=6 y+x
.
dx
dx
Re-arranging gives that
3y 2 − 6x
so
dy
= 6y − 3x2 ,
dx
dy
6y − 3x2
= 2
.
dx
3y − 6x
Plugging in (x, y) = (3, 3), we see that the slope of the tangent line at this point is
6(3) − 3(3)2
18 − 27
−9
=
=
= −1.
3(3)2 − 6(3)
27 − 18
9
Therefore, using the point-slope formula, the equation of the tangent line is
y − 3 = −1(x − 3),
or
y = −x + 6.
5. Suppose y = x1/x . What is
dy
dx ?
Answer: We will find the derivative using logarithmic differentiation. Thus, we first take the natural
log of both sides:
1
ln y = ln(x1/x ) = ln x.
x
Now, differentiating both sides with respect to x, we see that
1 dy
1 1
1
1 − ln x
= · − 2 ln x =
y dx
x x x
x2
Multiplying both sides by y gives us that
dy
1 − ln x
=y
dx
x2
so, plugging in y = x1/x we see that
dy
1 − ln x
= x1/x
.
dx
x2
2
6. Use a linearization of an appropriate function to estimate ln(0.9).
Answer: We will approximate ln(0.9) using the linearization of f (x) = ln x at 1. This linearization is
given by
L(x) = f (1) + f 0 (1)(x − 1).
Since f 0 (x) = x1 , we have that
f (1) = ln 1 = 0
1
f 0 (1) = = 1.
1
Plugging these values into the expression for L(x) yields
L(x) = 0 + (x − 1) = x − 1.
Therefore,
ln(0.9) ≈ L(0.9) = 0.9 − 1 = −0.1.
3