Calculus BC Unit 1 Challenging Problems

Bryan Jin
September 13, 2016

1 Disclaimer
All of the following problems come from the Calculus BC homework worksheets
from last year. These worksheets were made by Mr. Dominic and many of the
problems come from various textbooks, and some problems are very well known
classics.

2 Problems
1. True or False: p q
lim f (x) = lim f (x).
xa xa

If true, provide a proof. Otherwise, find a counterexample. Can you generalize

from taking a square root to taking an n-th root?

2. At 8:00 A.M. on Saturday, Bryan starts at the base of a hill and hikes
up to the top. At 8:00 A.M. on Sunday, Bryan starts at the top of the hill and
hikes to the base. Since Bryan is out of shape, it took him 5 hours to climb
up the hill, although it took him only 3 hours to climb down the hill. At some
point on the way down from the hill, Bryan realizes that he passed the same
place at exactly the same time on Saturday. Prove that no matter how Bryan
hikes up and down the hill, he can always correctly make this observation.

3. The Dirichlet Function is defined over the real numbers as follows: f (x) =
1 if x is rational, while f (x) = 0 if x is irrational. Show that the Dirichlet
Function is nowhere continuous.

4. Use differentials to estimate the amount of paint needed to apply a coat

of paint 0.18 cm thick to a hemispherical dome with diameter 60 m.

5. If f has a minimum value at c, show that the function g(x) = f (x) has
a maximum value at c. Note: while thinking about this question graphically is
a great way to visualize why this fact is true, using a graph does not constitute
a rigorous proof.

6. In Precalculus, we learned that the lines y = (b/a)x and y = (b/a)x are

slant asymptotes of the hyperbola (x2 /a2 ) (y 2 /b2 ) = 1. Prove this fact.

1
 7. Suppose that f and g are continuous on [a, b] and differentiable on (a, b).
Suppose also that f (a) = g(a) and f 0 (x) < g 0 (x) for a < x < b. Prove that
f (b) < g(b). Note: once again, thinking about this graphically is a great way
to understand the problem, but does not constitute a rigorous proof. Hint:
consider the Mean Value Theorem.

8. Use the Mean Value Theorem to prove the inequality | sin asin b| |ab|
for all a and b.

9. Let P (x) = Ax2 + Bx + C. Prove that for any interval [a, b], the value c
guaranteed by the Mean Value Theorem is the midpoint of the interval.

10. A fixed point of a function f is a real number c such that f (c) = c.

Prove that if f is differentiable on (, ) and f 0 (x) < 1 for all real numbers,
then f has at most one fixed point. Hint: one way to prove a hypothesis is to
assume the hypothesis is actually false, and then see if a logical absurdity arises.
Fittingly, this method of proof is known as proof by contradiction.

3 Solutions
Uhhh...I know and can explain most of the solutions, but Im too tired to type
them up right now.