STRATHMORE UNIVERSITY BUSINESS SCHOOL

BACHELOR OF COMMERCE (BCOM)

Practice Exercise 1
MAT 2101 Advanced Business Mathematics

Instructions: Answer ALL questions. Show your workings.

(a) Evaluate the following limits:

(i) lim (x + 1)2 .(3x − 1)3 [2 Marks]

x→2
x+1
(ii) lim [2 Marks]
x→−1 |x + 1|
3
(iii) lim [2 Marks]
x→4 (4 − x)3
+

(iv) lim (2x4 − x2 − 8x) [2 Marks]

x→∞

(b) Acme Stuffed Animals, Inc, is introducing a new line of teddy bears. The total cost of producing Scare
√
Bear (with glowing eyes) is projected to be C(x) = 36000 + 10000x, where x is the number of units
made and C(x) is the cost in dollars.

(i) Find and interpret C(400). [2 Marks]

(iii) Find and interpret lim C(x) [3 Marks]

x→100
C(x)
(iii) Find and interpret AC(x) = x for x = 25. [3 Marks]

(c) Pharmacological studies have determined that the amount of medication present in the body is a
function of the amount given and how much time has elapsed since the medication was administered.
For a certain medication, the amount present in millilitres, A(t), can be approximated by the function

A(t) = 3e−0.123t

where t is the number of hours since the medication was administered.

(i) Determine A(0) and interpret [2 Marks]

(ii) Determine lim A(t) and interpret. [2 Marks]

t→∞

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(d) For the function y = f (x) graphed below, find the following limits:

(i) lim f (x) (ii) lim f (x) (iii) lim f (x). [3 Marks]
x→−1− x→1− x→−∞

3x+7
(e) Find an equation for the horizontal asymptote of the graph of f (x) = 2x−5 [3 Marks]

(f) A peach grower takes steps to improve the quality of his product over several years. The annual profits
follow the function
25(t + 4)
P (t) =
t+5

where t is the time in years and P (t) is profit in thousands of dollars.

(i) Draw the graph of P in the viewing window [0,10] by [0,30] [3 Marks]

(ii) Find the annual profit 3 years after the start of the improvement program [2 Marks]

(iii) Find and interpret lim P (t). [2 Marks]

t→∞

(g) When a new product is introduced on the market, sales often follow a pattern of rapid initial growth
followed by some leveling off. For a certain new candy bar, this pattern is modelled by

S(t) = 4000 − 4000e−0.25t

where S(t) is the number of units sold after t months.

(i) How many units were sold after 2 months? [2 Marks]

2
 (ii) Determine lim S(t) and interpret. [2 Marks]
t→∞

(h) Determine the equation for the horizontal asymptote for the graph of f (x) given that

2x + 5
f (x) =
x−1

[3 Marks]

(i) Determine the domain of the following functions and write it down using interval notation.

√ x−1
(i) f (x) = x3 − 6x2 (ii) f (x) = 5−x (iii) g(x) = (x−1)(x+2) [3 Marks]

(j) Describe continuity of a function f (x) at a point x = a. [3 Marks]

(k) Is


 x − 8, x≤2
h(x) =
 6 , x>2
x−3

continuous at x = 2? Explain. [4 Marks]

(l) Let
 √x − 1

if x>4
f (x) =
 x2 − 4x + 1 if x≤4

Find

(i) lim f (x) (ii) lim f (x) (iii) lim f (x). [3 Marks]
x→4+ x→4− x→4

(iv) Is f (x) continuous at x = 4 ? [2 Marks]

(m) Sketch the graph of the following piecewise function and determine whether it is continuous on the
closed interval [0, 1]: [3 Marks]




 −1 if x < 0

g(x) = 0 if 0≤x≤1



 1 if x>1

END

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