Mathematics Primer Exercises

1 Calculus Problem Sheet

x 2
1. Consider two functions f (x) = 9x + 2 and g (x) = 9 9: Show that they
are functions of one another.
2. Obtain the inverse of the function f (x) = x1=3 + 2:
3. Calculate the following limits:
p 3
x2 4 x2 x x+5 (x + h) x3
lim lim 2 lim lim
x!2 x 2 x!1 2x + 5x 7 x! 25 x 25 h!0 h
h3 + 8 (1=t) 1
lim lim lim
p x2 + 3 (x 4)
h! 2 h + 2 t!1 t 1 x! 2

4. Using the de…nition of the derivative, show that for

y = 2x + 1; y 0 = 2
1 1
f (x) = ; f 0 (x) = 2
x 2 (x 2)
g (x) = jx 5j ; no derivative exists at x = 5

dy
5. Di¤erentiate the following functions y; to obtain where :
dx
q
5 1 2
y = x2 y 4 + 3y 4x3 = 5x + 1
3
4x + 2 y= 3 y = ln (2x + 5)
(4x2 + 6x 7)
2 3x2 x + 2
y = cos (4 3x) y = x exp(x) y=
4x2 + 5

6. Calculate the following

Z Z 1 Z 2
p p p 2s 7
x x2 4x + 2 dx (3 x + 1) ( x 2) dx ds
s3
Z 2 2 Z4 5 Z 1
x 1 5x 12
dx j2x 3j dx dx
3 x 1 1 x (x 4)

7. By using suitable substitutions (change of variable), evaluate the following

Z Z Z p 4
3 x2 + x ( u + 3)
3 x4 x3 dx 4 dx p du
(4 3x2 2x3 ) u
Z 3 Z Z
1 1 2
1+ du x exp x dx sin x exp (cos x) dx
u u2

1
 8. If f (x; y) = (x y) sin (3x + 2y) ; determine fx ; f y ; fxx ; fyy ; fxy ; fyx :
Now evaluate these expressions at (0; =3) :
2 2
9. Show that z = ln (x a) + (y b) satis…es

@2z @2z
+ =0
@x2 @y 2

except at (a; b) :
10. Obtain Taylor series expansions for the following functions about the given
point x0 : If no point is given, then expand about the point 0 (in which
case you can use standard Taylor series expansions)

f (x) = x2 sin x f (x) = cos x; x0 = =3 f (x) = exp x; x0 = 3

1 3 x2 + 1
f (x) = f (x) = f (x) =
1 4x 2x + 5 x 1

11. If U (x; y; z) = 2x2 yz + xz 2 ; where x = 2 sin t; y = t2 t + 1; z =

3 exp ( t) ;
dU
…nd at t = 0:
dt
12. Given w = f (x; y) ; x = r cos ; y = r sin ; show that
2 2 2 2
@w 1 @w @w @w
+ = +
@r r2 @ @x @y