M ATHEMATICS - M ANAGEMENT AND C OMPUTER S CIENCE

ACADEMIC Y EAR 2019/2020

P ROFESSOR G. Z ANCO
E XAM
18 D ECEMBER 2019

NAME: BADGE N UMBER:

I NSTRUCTIONS
Solve the following problems justifying your answers. All the papers you turn in to the instructors
must bear your name and will be graded. Keep in mind that order helps when grading exams, so
state clearly your answer, cancel what should not be read or considered and do not mix solutions
of different exercises together.

Please keep in mind that all the exercises below have many possible solutions; I propose only
some possibilities here. This does not mean that the solution provided here is the only one that
will give you all the points, any solution which is correct and complete will be equally accepted.
Exercise E.1. Compute
Z e2 −1
x2 − x + 1
dx .
e−1 x3 log(x + 1) + log(x + 1)

Solution. We have
Z e2 −1 e2 −1
x2 − x + 1 x2 − x + 1
Z
dx = dx
e−1 x3 log(x + 1) + log(x + 1) e−1 (x3 + 1) log(x + 1)
Ze2 −1
1
= dx
e−1 (x + 1) log(x + 1)
Ze2 −1
1 1
= dx
e−1 log(x + 1) x + 1
Ze2 −1
1
= d log(x + 1)
e−1 log(x + 1)
e2 −1
= log (log(x + 1)) e−1
= log 2 .

Exercise E.2. Consider the series

+∞ 2
X k −k−1
.
(k + 1)2 k 2
i=1
 (i) Compute its first five partial sums.
(ii) Find and prove a general formula for its partial sums.
(iii) Determine whether it diverges or converges or none; if it converges compute its sum.

Solution.
(i) Just adding the corresponding numbers we have
1
X k2 − k − 1 1−1−1 1
= =− ,
(k + 1)2 k 2 2
(1 + 1) 1 2 4
k=1
2
X k2 − k − 1 1 1 2
=− + =− ,
(k + 1)2 k 2 4 36 9
k=1
3
X k2 −k−1 2 5 3
2 2
=− + =− ,
(k + 1) k 9 144 16
k=1
4
X k2 −k−1 3 11 4
2 2
=− + =− ,
(k + 1) k 16 400 25
k=1
5
X k2 − k − 1 4 19 5
2 2
=− + =− .
(k + 1) k 25 900 36
k=1

(ii) The previous calculations suggest that for every n ∈ N , n ≥ 1,

n
X k2 − k − 1 n
=− ;
(k + 1)2 k 2 (n + 1)2
k=1
let us check it by induction. The base case n = 1 has already been verified above. Suppose
now equality holds for n; we have
n+1 n
X k2 − k − 1 (n + 1)2 − (n − 1) − 1 X k 2 − k − 1
= +
(k + 1)2 k 2 (n + 2)2 (n + 1)2 (k + 1)2 k 2
k=1 k=1
(n + 1)2
− (n − 1) − 1 n
= −
(n + 2)2 (n + 1)2 (n + 1)2
−n3 − 3n2 − 3n − 1
=
(n + 1)2 (n + 2)2
(n + 1)
3
=−
(n+1)2 (n + 2)2


n+1
=−
(n + 2)2
and so also the inductive step is verified.
(iii) By definition of series we have
+∞ 2 n
X k −k−1 X k2 − k − 1
= lim
(k + 1)2 k 2 n→+∞ (k + 1)2 k 2
k=1 k=1
n
= − lim
n→+∞ (n + 1)2

=0
 and the series converges.

Exercise E.3. Let f : R → R be defined as

2
ex
f (x) = x .
e −1
(i) Find the domain of f and compute the limits of f at its boundary.
(ii) Find all asymptotes of f , if any.
(iii) Compute f 0 .
(iv) Show that there exists at least one point where the tangent line to the graph of f is horizontal.

Solution.
(i) The domain of f is given by all points for which the denominator of f is not zero, thus
Dom(f ) = {x ∈ R : ex − 1 6= 0} = R \ {0}. We clearly have
lim f (x) = −∞
x→−∞

and
2
ex 2
lim f (x) = lim x −x
= lim ex −x = lim ex(x−1) = +∞ ;
x→+∞ x→+∞ e (1 − e ) x→+∞ x→+∞

moreover 2 2
x ex ex
lim f (x) = lim x = lim = ±∞ .
x→0± x→0± e − 1 x x→0± x

(ii) By the above computations we have a vertical asymptote at x = 0 and no horizontal asymp-
totes. At infinity there cannot be any oblique asymptote since
2
f (x) ex
lim = lim
x→+∞ x x→+∞ x(ex − 1)
2
2xex
= lim
x→+∞ e − 1 + xex
x
2
ex x
= 2 lim
x→+∞ e 1 + x − e−x
x
2
= 2 lim ex −x
x→+∞
= +∞
and
2
f (x) ex
lim = lim
x→−∞ x x→−∞ x(ex − 1)
2
1 ex
= lim x lim
x→−∞ e − 1 x→−∞ x
2
= − lim 2xex
x→−∞
= +∞ .
(iii) Using the tule for the derivative of a quotient we find
2
ex
f 0 (x) = (2x(ex − 1) − ex ) .
(ex − 1)2

(iv) f 0 is continuous where it is defined; since f 0 (1/2) < 0 and f 0 (1) > 0 there must be at least
one point x ∈ (1/2, 1) at which f 0 (x) = 0.

Exercise E.4. Consider the linear transformation

T : P3 → P3
T p(t) = p00 (t) .

(i) Find the matrix A that represents T with respect to the basis

B = t3 , t2 , t, 1


(both in the domain and in the target space).

(ii) Find the dimension of Nul A and provide a basis for it.

Solution.

(i) We have
T (t3 ) = 6t, T (t2 ) = 2, T (t) = T (1) = 0
hence
     
0 0 0
0  0
T (t3 ) 2 0
      
B 6 , T (t ) B = 0 , [T (t)]B = [T (1)]B = 0
=   

0 1 0

and thus  
0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0
A=
6
 .
0 0 0
0 2 0 0

(ii) Since Rank A = 2 we have dim Nul A = 2 as well. A basis for Nul A can be found solving
the homogeneous system Ax = 0 or just noting that p00 is the zero polynomial only if p has
degree 0 or 1, therefore    

 0 0 
   
  , 0
0

 1 0
 
0 1
 

is surely a basis for Nul A.

Exercise E.5. Find the number of solutions to the linear system Ax = b, where
   
k 2k 1 −k
A= 1 0 −2 , b = −k  ,
−2k 0 −1 4k
as the parameter k varies in R.

Solution. We row reduce the augmented matrix

 
k 2k 1 | −k
 1 0 −2 | −k 
−2k 0 −1 | 4k
to  
1 0 −1 | −k
k2 − k  = U


0 2k 2k + 1 | | b̂ .
0 0 −1 − 4k | −2k 2 + 4k
The systems Ax = b and U x = b̂ have the same solution set; since
det U = 2k(−1 − 4k)
we have that if k 6= 0 and k 6= − 41 the system always has one and only one solution. If k = 0
then, substituting above, we find infinitely many solutions given by all vectors of the form
 
0
t 1 .
0
If k = − 14 substituting above we find as third equation 0 = − 98 , therefore the system has no
solutions in this case.

Exercise E.6. Let k be an odd natural number and let A be a 4 × 4 matrix such that
(a) A is diagonalizable;
(b) Ak = A.
Show that A must have at least one eigenvalue with algebraic multiplicity strictly larger than one.

Solution. There exist matrices D diagonal and P invertible such that A = P DP −1 , therefore
Ak = P Dk P −1 and A = Ak implies D = Dk . If we denote by di , i = 1, dots, 4, the elements
on the diagonal of D (that are the eigenvalues of A), we must then have di = dki for every
i = 1, . . . , 4. Therefore there are only three possibilities for di , namely that it equals 0, 1 or −1.
Since the elements on the diagonal of D are four, at least one of them must appear at least two
times.

Bonus Exercise. For n ∈ (1, +∞) let An be the matrix

1 1 
n n −n 0
 
An =  0 n 0
 .
0 n − n1 1
n
Show that there exists a subspace V of R3 such that both the following two properties hold true:

(a) dim V = 2;

(b) for every v ∈ V we have

lim An v = 0 .
n→+∞

Solution. We have
1
det (An − λIn ) = (n − λ)( − λ)2 ;
n
1
therefore n is an eigenvalue of An and substituting it for λ we find the matrix

0 n1 − n 0
 
1  1

An − In =  0 n − n 0
n  
1
0 n− n 0

that clearly has rank 1. The solutions to the system (A − n1 In )x = 0 are indeed all vectors of
the form (x, 0, z), so that to the eigenvalue n1 correspond the eigenvectors v1 = (1, 0, 0) and
v2 = (0, 0, 1). Therefore for every n the eigenspace V corresponding to the eigenvalue n1 equals
Span {v1 , v2 }, has dimension 2 and satisfies requirement (a) above. To check that also (b) holds
let us take a generic vector v ∈ V ; we can write v as αv1 + βv2 for some α, β ∈ R. We then
have
α β n→+∞
An v = αAn v1 + βAn v2 = v1 + v2 −→ 0 .
n n