Practice questions

From the book NME - Numerical Methods for Engineers, 7th ed.

Review of calculus and Taylor Approximation

1. Consider the following function f (x)=( x−2)3 +1 .

a. Use the limit definition to find the derivative of the function at x = 1.
b. Is the function increasing or decreasing at x = 1? Justify your answer.
c. Find the equation of the tangent line at x = 1.
d. Draw the graph of the function f (x) and f ' (x) .

2. NME Exercises 4.1, 4.17 (here, the Taylor approximation is near x i ).

Root finding and Numerical Differentiation

1. NME Exercises 5.1, 6.2 (check the modified secant method on p.161), 6.8, 6.15

Optimization

1. Write in words what the second derivative of a function f (x) tells you about f (x) and
f ' (x) . What happens at the point x=a where f ' ' ( x)=0 ?
2. NME Exercises 13.11