EXERCISES OF CHAPTER 2

1. Find an equation of the tangent line to the curve y 2  5x4
x2 at the point p1, 2q.
2. If xy y3  1, find the value of y 2
at the point where x  0.

3. (a) The van der Waals equation for n moles of a gas is



n2 a
P
V2
pV
nbq  nRT
where P is the pressure, V is the volume, and T is the temperature of the gas.

The constant R is the universal gas constant and a and b are positive constants

that are characteristic of a particular gas. If T remains constant, use implicit

differentiation to find dV {dP .

(b) Find the rate of change of volume with respect to pressure of 1 mole of carbon

dioxide at a volume of V  10 L and a pressure of P  2.5 atm. Use a  3.592 L2

atm{mole2 and b  0.04267 L{mole.

4. Find all points on the curve x2 y 2 xy  2 where the slope of the tangent line is
1.
5. The height (in meters) of a projectile shot vertically upward from a point 2 m above

ground level with an initial velocity of 24.5 m{s is h  2 24.5t
4.9t2 after t seconds.

(a) Find the velocity after 2 s and after 4 s.

(b) When does the projectile reach its maximum height?

(c) What is the maximum height?

(d) When does it hit the ground?

(e) With what velocity does it hit the ground?

6. A stone is dropped into a lake, creating a circular ripple that travels outward at a

speed of 60 cm{s. Find the rate at which the area within the circle is increasing after

(a) 1 s, (b) 3 s, and (c) 5 s. What can you conclude?

7. The quantity of charge Q in coulombs (C) that has passed through a point in a wire

up to time t (measured in seconds) is given by Qptq  t3
2t2 6t 2. Find the current

when (a) t  0.5 s and (b) t  1 s. [The unit of current is an ampere (1 A  1 C {s).] At

what time is the current lowest?

8. The cost, in dollars, of producing x yards of a certain fabric is

C pxq  1200 12x
0.1x2 0.0005x3

1
 (a) Find the marginal cost function.

(b) Find C 1 p200q and explain its meaning. What does it predict?

(c) Compare C 1 p200q with the cost of manufacturing the 201 st yard of fabric.

9. The length of a rectangle is increasing at a rate of 8 cm{s and its width is increasing at

a rate of 3 cm{s. When the length is 20 cm and the width is 10 cm, how fast is the area

of the rectangle increasing?

10. A particle is moving along a hyperbola xy  8. As it reaches the point p4, 2q, the y-

coordinate is decreasing at a rate of 3 cm{s. How fast is the x-coordinate of the point

changing at that instant?

11. Two cars start moving from the same point. One travels south at 60 mi{h and the

other travels west at 25 mi{h. At what rate is the distance between the cars increasing

two hours later?

12. A particle moves along the curve y  2 sin πx . As the particle passes through the point
2 ?
p 13 , 1q, its x-coordinate increases at a rate of 10 cm{s. How fast is the distance from
the particle to the origin changing at this instant?

13. Two sides of a triangle are 4 m and 5 m in length and the angle between them is

increasing at a rate of 0.06 rad{s. Find the rate at which the area of the triangle is

increasing when the angle between the sides of fixed length is π {3.

14. A plane flies horizontally at an altitude of 5 km and passes directly over a tracking

telescope on the ground. When the angle of elevation is π {3, this angle is decreasing

at a rate of π {6 rad{min. How fast is the plane traveling at that time?

15. Two people start from the same point. One walks east at 3 mi{h and the other walks

northeast at 2 mi{h. How fast is the distance between the people changing after 15

minutes?

16. The radius of a circular disk is given as 24 cm with a maximum error in measurement

of 0.2 cm.

(a) Use differentials to estimate the maximum error in the calculated area of the disk.

(b) What is the relative error? What is the percentage error?

17. Suppose that we don’t have a formula for g pxq but we know that g p2q 
4 and g 1 pxq 
?
x2 5 for all x.

2
 (a) Use a linear approximation to estimate g p1.95q and g p2.05q

(b) Are your estimates in part (a) too large or too small? Explain.

18. Find the critical numbers of the function.

(a) f pxq  2x3
3x2
36x
(d) f ptq  t3{4
2t1{4
(b) g ptq  t4 t3 t2 1
(e) F pxq  x4{5 px
4q2
y
1
(c) hpy q  2 (f) g pθq  4θ
tan θ
y
y 1
19. Find the absolute maximum and absolute minimum values of f on the given interval.

(a) f pxq  5 54x
2x3 , r0, 4s (e) f pxq 

x
, r0, 3s
2
x
(b) f pxq  x3
6x2 5, r
3, 5s x? 1
(c) f pxq  3x4
4x3
12x2 1, r
2, 3s (f) f pxq  x 4
x2 , r
1, 2s
1
x x2 (g) f pxq  c cos x sin 2x, r0, π {2s
(d) f pxq  , r0, 1s ? ?
1 x
x2 (h) f pxq  3 x 1
3 x
1, r0, 1s

20. If a and b are positive numbers, find the maximum value of f pxq  xa p1
xqb , 0 ¤ x ¤ 1.

21. If f p1q  10 and f 1 pxq ¥ 2 for 1 ¤ x ¤ 4, how small can f p4q possibly be?

22. For the following functions, find the intervals of increase or decrease, the local maximum

and minimum values, and the intervals of concavity and the inflection points.
f pxq  x3
12x 2 f pxq  x
sin x, 0 ¤ x ¤ 4π
(a) (e)
?
f pxq  px 1q5
5x
2 f px q  x 1
x 2
(b)
? (f)
f pxq  x
2 ln x
(c) f px q  x 6
x (g)
(d) f pxq  2 cos x cos2 x, 0 ¤ x ¤ 2π (h) f pxq  ln x
arctan x
23. Find the values of a and b so that the point p1, 3q is the inflection point of the graph of

the function y  ax3 bx2 .

24. Find asymptotes of the graph of the curves

c a
(c) f pxq 
|x2
3|
(a) f pxq 
x

? x3
2 2 x

(d) f pxq  x ln e
1
(b) f pxq  x
x
3
x

25. Find a cubic function f pxq  ax3 bx2 cx d that has a local maximum value of 3 at

x 
2 and a local minimum value of 0 at x  1.

26. Sketch the curve

? (d) f pxq 
x2 1
(a) f pxq  x
x
x2 x 1
(b) f pxq  sin x
3
(e) f pxq 
sin x
(c) f pxq  3
x 1 cos x
x
1 (f) f pxq  ? 2x
x
1