Practice Problems for Midterm 1

Here are some problems for you to try. A few I made up, others I found from a variety of sources, including Stewarts Multivariable Calculus book. (1) A boy throws a football with an angle of elevation of 30 degrees and speed 64 ft/s. (a) Find the horizontal and vertical components (call them vx and vy , respectively) of the velocity vector. (b) Assume the height of the ball at time t is given by h(t) = 16t2 + vy t, where vy is as in part (a). How long does it take the ball to hit the ground? (c) How long does it take the ball to travel 40 feet? 200 feet? (Hint: Horizontal velocity remains constant throughout the balls time in the air.) (d) If a friend is standing 40 feet away, will the friend catch the ball? (i.e. will the ball land in the friends hands without him moving?) (2) A man wants to take a boat across a river. The river is 1 mile wide, and he wants to land 1 miles upstream from his starting point. The current in the river ows at 1 mph and the speed of the boat is 1 mph. Is it possible for the person to land 1 mile upstream from the starting point and, if so, nd the direction in which he should travel. (3) Find the acute angle between the lines 2x y = 3 and 3x + y = 7. (4) If a = 3, 0, 1 , nd a vector b so that the component of b along a is 2. (5) Under what conditions is the component of b along a the same as the component of a along b? (6) (a) Find the angle between the diagonal of a cube and one of its edges. (b) Find the angle between the diagonal of a cube and the diagonal of one of its faces. (7) A rhombus is a parallelogram with all sides equal. Show that the diagonals of a rhombus are orthogonal. (8) Determine whether the following vectors are orthogonal, parallel, or neither: (a) v = 1, 2 , w = 4, 2 (b) v = 1, 2, 3 , w = 1, 3, 2 (c) v = 1, 1, 0, 1 , w = 1, 1, 0, 1 (d) v = 2, 3, 1 , w = 5, 3, 1 (9) Which of the following expressions make sense and which do not? a, b, c, d are all vectors, denotes the dot product, and denotes the cross product. (a) a (b c) 1

(b) a (b c) (c) a (b c) (d) a (b c) (e) (a b) (c d) (f) (a b) (c d) (g) (a b) (c d) (10) Find the area of the parallelogram with vertices A(2, 1), B (0, 4), C (4, 2), and D(2, 1). (11) Consider the three points A(1, 0, 0), B (1, 2, 2) and C (3, 0, 1). (a) Find the area of the triangle ABC (b) Find a scalar equation of a plane through the three points. (12) Consider the four points P (2, 1, 0), Q(2, 3, 2), R(1, 4, 1), S (3, 6, 1). Find the volume of parallelepiped spanned by the vectors P Q, P R, P S . (13) (a) Are the vectors i + 5j 2k, 3i j, 5i + 9j 4k coplanar? (b) Are the points A(1, 3, 2), B (3, 1, 6), C (5, 2, 0), D(3, 6, 4) coplanar? (14) If a b = 3 and a b = 1, 2, 2 , nd the angle between a and b. (15) Find all v so that 1, 2, 1 v = 3, 1, 5 . Explain why there is no such vector if we want 1, 2, 1 v = 3, 1, 5 . (16) Consider the plane, call it P , through three points Q, R and S , and a fourth point T , which may or may not be on the plane. Let v = QR, w = QS and u = QT . Explain geometrically why the distance from T to P is |u (v w)| . ||v w|| (17) Consider the lines x = 1 + t, y = 2 + 3tz = 4 t and x = 2t, y = 3 + t, z = 3 + 4t. Are these lines parallel? Do they intersect? Do they collide? (18) Find all points where the line through (1, 1, 1) and (2, 1, 0) intersects the xz -plane. (19) Find a scalar equation of the plane through (1, 3, 2), (3, 1, 6), (5, 2, 0)? (20) Find the point at which the line 2, 0, 5 + t 3, 4, 1 intersects the plane which passes through (0, 0, 9) and is normal to n = 4, 5, 2 . (21) Consider the planes x + y + z = 1 and x 2y + 3z = 1? (a) Find the angle between the planes. (b) Find a parametrization for the line of intersection of the planes. 2

(22) Consider the plane 6x + 2y + 3z = 6. (a) Find the projection of the vector v = 1, 1, 2 onto the plane. (b) Find the distance from the point (2, 1, 2) to the plane. (23) Consider the planes x + 3y 2z = 2 and 5x + 15y 10z = 30. Explain why they are parallel, and then nd the distance between them. (24) Find the equation of the plane: (a) Passing through (1, 2, 1) and normal to 2, 1, 3 (b) Passing through (1, 2, 3) and parallel to 5x + 2y + z = 1 (c) Containing the line x = 1 + t, y = 2 t, z = 4 3t and parallel to 5x + 2y + z = 1 (d) Passing through (1, 2, 3) and containing the line x = 3t, y = 1 + t, z = 2 t (25) Consider the lines l1 : x = 1 + t, y = 1 + 6t, z = 2t and l2 : x = 1 + 2t, y = 5 + 15t, z = 2 + 6t (a) Show that l1 and l2 are not parallel and do not intersect (such lines are called skew ). The rest of this problem is devoted to nding the distance between these two lines. (b) Find a vector n that is perpendicular to both lines. (c) Find the equation of the plane P1 containing the line l1 with normal vector n. (d) Find the equation of the plane P2 containing the line l2 with normal vector n. (e) Why are these planes parallel? (f) Find the distance between these parallel planes, and convince yourself that this is the distance between the lines. (26) Under what conditions is the cross product of two nonzero vectors v and w equal to the zero vector, i.e. when is v w = 0 where v, w = 0? (27) Parametrize the following curves: (a) y = ex + x3 (b) x = y 2 + sin(y ) (c)
(x+9)2 25

(y 1)2 16

= 64
y2 4

(d) The line segment between the points (0, 1, 1) and (1, 2, 1) (e) The intersection of the surface x2 + z = 1 and the plane y = 2. (f) The intersection of the cylinder x2 + y 2 = 1 and the plane x + y + z = 1. (g) The intersection of the surfaces x2 + y 2 z = 0 and y 2 + z = 1. (h) The line tangent to the curve c(t) = sin(2t), e3t , 1 + t at t = 0 (i) The intersection of the cylinder x2 + y 2 = 4 and the cone z = 3 x2 + y 2 .

(28) Find the length of the curve c(t) = cos3 (t), sin3 (t) from t = 0 to t = /2. (29) Find the length of the curve c(t) = et , et sin(t), et cos(t) from the point (1, 0, 1) to (e2 , 0, e2 ). (30) A particle is traveling with acceleration a(t) = et , t, sin(2t) . At t = 0, the particle was at 0, 0, 0 , and the particles initial velocity vector was 1, 0, 0 . Find the position of the particle at t = . (31) Find the arc-length parametrization of the circle c(t) = 4 cos(t), 4 sin(t) (32) Find values of t where the tangent vectors to the curve c(t) = t2 + 2t, t3 12t are horizontal. Find all values of t where the tangent vectors are vertical. (33) Suppose a particle is moving with position function r(t) = t2 , 1 2t, t . At what value of t is the speed of the particle smallest? (34) True/False: (a) The cross product is associative, i.e. a (b c) = (a b) c for all vectors a, b, c. (b) If r(t) and f (t) are both vector valued functions, where t is a real number, then r(f (t)) is a vector-valued function. (c) If r(t) is a vector valued function, then r(t) and r (t) are always orthogonal. (d) If v = 1, 2 , then the only number c for which the vector cv has length 1 is c = 1/ 5 (e) In two dimensions, if v is not the zero vector, then there are precisely two vectors orthogonal to v . (f) There exist vectors v and w with ||v || = 1, ||w|| = 2, v w = 10. (g) v w = ||v || ||w|| sin(), where is the angle between v and w (note: the just denotes multiplication of numbers, not the dot product.) (h) If v and w are any two nonzero vectors in two dimensions, then we cannot nd a vector u which is orthogonal to both v and w. (i) All of the above answers are false. (35) Consider the curves r1 (t) = t, 1 t, 3 + t2 and r2 (t) = 3 s, s 2, s2 . (a) At what point do the curves intersect? (b) Find the angle of intersection. (36) Suppose f (t) = u(t) v (t). If u(2) = 1, 2, 1 , u (2) = 3, 0, 4 , and v (t) = t, t2 , t3 , nd f (2). (37) Suppose you start at (0, 0, 3) and move 5 units along r(t) = 3 sin(t), 4t, 3 cos(t) in the positive direction. At what point are you now?

(38) For each of the following, compute the unit tangent vector, unit normal vector, and curvature. (a) r(t) = t, 3 cos(t), 3 sin(t) 2t, et , et (b) r(t) = (39) What happens to the curvature of y = ex as x ? Show all work. (40) Find all a 2 such that the curvature of y = xa at the origin is nonzero.

Answers: (1) (a) vx = 32 3 ft/s and vy = 32 ft/s. (b) 2 seconds. seconds to go 40 feet, and it will never go 200 feet. (d) No, because the ball hits the ground 64 3 feet away, which is more than 40 feet. (c) It takes the ball (2) It is not possible. (3) It is the angle between the vectors 1, 2 and 1, 3 , which is /4. (4) b = 0, 0, 2 10 works. (5) This happens if a and b are orthogonal or if ||a|| = ||b||. (6) (a) cos1 (1/ 3) (b) cos1 ( 2/3). (7) Suppose the rhombus is spanned by v and w, with ||v || = ||w||. Then the diagonals are v + w and v w. We notice that (v + w) (v w) = |v |2 |w|2 = 0 since |v | = |w| by assumption. Hence the diagonals are orthogonal. (8) (a) Orthogonal (b) Neither (c) Parallel (d) Orthogonal (9) (a) Yes (b) No (c) Yes (d) No (e) No (f) Yes (g) No (10) 16 (11) (a) 3 (b) 2(x 1) 4y + 4z = 0 (12) 16 (13) (a) Yes, because the triple scalar product is 0.
5 4 3

(b) Yes, because if we take the triple scalar product of the vectors AB, AC , and AD, we get 0. (14) /3 (15) All vectors of the form (t, 2t 5, t 1) for some t. If we change the vector, then we could not nd such a v because 3, 1, 5 is not orthogonal to 1, 2, 1 . (16) The numerator is the volume of the parallelpiped formed by u, v, w and the denominator is the area of the parallelogram spanned by v, w. The volume is the area of this parallelogram times the height, and this height is precisely the distance between the point and the plane. (17) They do not intersect, hence do not collide. They are also not parallel. (18) It does not intersect the xz -plane. (19) 12(x 1) + 20(y 3) + 14(z 2) = 0 (20) (4, 8, 3) (21) (a) cos1 (2/ 42) (b) 1, 0, 0 + t 5, 2, 3 (22) (a) 1, 1, 2 (b) 2 (23) They are parallel because their normal vectors are. The distance is 4/ 14. (24) (a) 2(x 1) (y 2) + 3(z 1) = 0 (b) 5(x 1) + 2(y 2) + (z 3) = 0 (c) 5(x 1) + 2(y 2) + (z 4) = 0 (d) 2x 4(y 1) + 2(z 2) = 0 (25) (a) Standard stu (b) 6, 2, 3 (c) 6x 2y + 3z = 4 (d) 6x 2y + 3z = 10 (e) Their normal vectors are (f) 2. (26) One has to be a (nonzero) multiple of the other. (27) (a) t, et + t3 (b) t2 + sin(t), t 7
14 6, 2, 3 49

(whatever that works out to be)

(c) 40 cos(t) 9, 32 sin(t) + 1 , where 0 t 2 (d) t, 1 + t, 1 2t , 0 t 1 (e) t, 2, t2 (f) cos(t), sin(t), 1 sin(t) cos(t) , 0 t 2 (g)
t) , 1 1 sin2 (t) , 0 t 2 cos(t), sin( 2 2 t 2

(h) 2t, 1 + 3t, 1 +

(i) 2 cos(t), 2 sin(t), 2 , 0 t 2 (28) 3/2 (29) 3(e2 1) (30) e 1, 6 , 2

3

(31) c(s) = 4 cos(s/4), 4 sin(s/4) . (32) Horizontal when t = 2, vertical when t = 1 (33) When t = 0 (34) All are false except for the last part which is, in fact, true. (35) (a) (1, 0, 4) (b) cos1 (1/ 3)

(36) 35 (37) (3 sin(1), 4, 3 cos(1)) (38) (a) T (t) = 1 , 3 sin(t), 3 cos(t) , N (t) = 0, cos(t), sin(t) , and the cur10 10 10 vature is 3/10. t 2t (b) T (t) = e2t1+1 2e , e , 1 , N (t) = e2t1+1 1 e2t , 2et , 2et , and the curvature is 2t 2e . 2 t (e + 1)2 (39) It goes to 0. (40) a = 2.