Practice Problems 10: Solutions

MATH 147 Section 2, Fall 2022

University of Waterloo

Notes about these problems

1. These practice problems are not for credit and should not be submitted on Crowdmark.
2. This set covers topics from Week 10 (lectures 27–29).
3. Solutions will be provided for a small subset of these exercises. Some will be short answers
(less detail than you should give in assignment solutions).
4. Some of these problems will be discussed in tutorials.
5. You are strongly encouraged to work together and share/give feedback on solutions.
6. If you post your solutions in Piazza, the TAs and instructor can also take a look and give
feedback.

Local (and global) extrema

1. For each of the questions below, try to visualize an example (sketch its graph) or explain
why it is not possible.
(a) Is it possible for a function to have global maxima (or global minima) at more than
one point simultaneously?
(b) Is it possible for a function to have multiple global maximum values or multiple
global minimum values?
(c) If f has a global maximum at c, can it also have a local maximum at c?
Short solution: Yes, e.g., f (x) = −x2 has a global maximum and a local maximum
at c = 0.
(d) If f has a local maximum at c, can it also have a global maximum at c?
(e) If f has a global maximum at c, must it also have a local maximum at c?
Short solution: No, if the global maximum occurs at the end point of the interval
on which f is defined, then this is not a local maximum.
(f) If f has a local maximum at c, must it also have a global maximum at c?
(g) If f has a local maximum at c and a global maximum at d, is it possible that c > d?
Short solution: Yes.
(h) If f has a local maximum at c and a global maximum at d, is it possible that
f (c) > f (d)?

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 Short solution: No.
(i) If f has a local maximum at c and a global maximum at d, is it possible that
f (d) > f (c)?
Short solution: Yes.
(j) If the domain of f is I = [a, b], can f have a global maximum at either end point a
or b? Can f have a local maximum at a or b?
(k) If the domain of f is I = [a, b], does f have to have global extrema at the end points
a and b?
Short solution: No, global extrema could occur on (a, b).
(l) If the domain of f is I = [a, b], and f has a global maximum at c ∈ (a, b), must f
also have a local maximum at c?
2. Which of the following statements are true? Think of examples (either a formula or sketch
of the function) that illustrate your answers.
(a) If f has a local extremum at c, then c is a critical point.
Short solution: True. Fermat’s Theorem.
(b) If c is a critical point of f , then f has a local extremum at c.
Short solution: False.
(c) If c is a local extremum of f and f 0 (c) exists, then f 0 (c) = 0.
Short solution: True.
(d) If c is a global maximum of f and f 0 (c) exists, then f 0 (c) = 0.
Short solution: True, if we are only talking about two-sided derivatives so c is not
at an endpoint.
(e) If c is a local maximum of f , then f 0 (c) = 0.
Short solution: False.
(f) If f 0 (c) exists and f 0 (c) = 0, then c is either a local maximum or a local minimum
of f .
Short solution: False.
(g) If f 0 (c) exists f 0 (c) 6= 0, then c may or may not be a local extremum.
Short solution: False. It cannot be a local extremum.
(h) If f is differentiable everywhere on its domain and f 0 (c) = 0 at exactly one value of
c, then this c is a local extremum.
Short solution: False. E.g., f (x) = x3 .
3. Identify all critical points of the following functions.

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 (a) f (x) = 4x3 − 15x2 + 12x + 5.
Solution: Since this is a polynomial, it is differentiable on R. The derivative
function is

f 0 (x) = 12x2 − 30x + 12.

√
5± 52 −4·2·2
Critical points are points satisfying f 0 (x) = 0, namely, x = 4
= 1
2
and 2.
|x − 1|
(b) f (x) = .
(x2 − 1)(x − 5)
p
(c) f (x) = |x − 3| · |x + 1|.
4. How many critical points does the function f (x) = sin(x) − x2 /2 have on the interval
[−π/2, π/2]? Explain your reasoning.
Solution: Since sin(x) and x2 /2 are differentiable on R, critical points are precisely the
points at which f 0 (x) = cos(x) − x = 0.
Note that f 0 is continuous, f 0 (0) = 1 > 0 and f 0 (π/2) = −π/2 < 0. Hence, by the
Intermediate Value Theorem, there is a point c ∈ (0, π/2) such that f 0 (c) = 0.
The second derivative of f is f 00 (x) = − sin(x)−1 < 0 for all x ∈ R\{(2n+1/2)π : n ∈ Z}
and f 00 (x) ≤ 0 for all x ∈ R.
By the Derivative Test for Monotonicity, f 0 is strictly decreasing on (0, π/2) and nonin-
creasing (−∞, 0] and on [π/2, ∞).
Since f 0 is also continuous, we have that f 0 is one-to-one, so there cannot be any other
point d =6 c such that f 0 (d) = 0.
5. Find the shape of a rectangle that maximizes its area given that its perimeter is 20 cm
long.
By “shape”, we mean the width w and height h of the rectangle.
Hint: Find a formula for the area as a function of just one variable, either width or
height.
6. Consider functions of the form f (x) = ax3 + bx2 + cx + d. How does the number of critical
points f has depend on the values of the constants a, b, c, d ∈ R?
Mean Value Theorem
7. Review Rolle’s Theorem. Does the conclusion still hold in the following situations? If
not, find a concrete counterexample.
(a) We remove the hypothesis that f (a) = f (b).
(b) There is a single point in (a, b) at which f is not differentiable.
(c) We replace continuity on [a, b] with continuity on (a, b).

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 8. Prove Rolle’s Theorem in a different way from the lectures/text book. Namely, use
the Half-Chord Lemma to generate a nested sequence of closed bounded intervals whose
endpoints have equal function values. Then, use the Nested Intervals Lemma to find a
point c and show that f 0 (c) = 0 using the sequential characterization of limits.
9. Suppose f is differentiable on [3, 5] with f 0 (x) = 1
1+x3
on this interval, and f (3) = 2.
Show that f (5) ∈ 127 29
 
,
63 14
.
Short solution: Apply the Bounded Derivative Theorem.
10. The Generalized Mean Value Theorem is often stated as:
Let f and g be continuous on the proper interval [a, b] and differentiable on (a, b) with
g 0 (x) 6= 0 for all x ∈ (a, b). Then there exists c ∈ (a, b) such that

f 0 (c) f (b) − f (a)

0
= .
g (c) g(b) − g(a)

Can the conclusion fail to hold if we omit the requirement that g 0 (x) 6= 0 for all x ∈ (a, b)?
Short solution: Yes, in at least two ways. It is possible that g(b) = g(a), so that the
right hand side is undefined, and it is possible that g(b) 6= g(a) but there is no such point
c. This can happen if there is a single point c such that g 0 (c) = 0. Try making some
parametric plots on a computer.
11. Prove that if a function f is Lipschitz continous on a proper interval I, then f is uniformly
continuous on I. Is the converse true?
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12. Use the Mean Value Theorem to prove that f (x) = e−x is uniformly continuous on R.
Do not use the “vanishing at infinity” property.
Short solution: Differentiate f and find the global extrema of f 0 . Then apply the Mean
Value Theorem and Problem 11.
13. Show that there exists a constant c ∈ R such that arcsin(x) + arccos(x) = c for all
x ∈ [−1, 1]. What is the value of c?
14. List all of the indefinite integrals of basic functions you can think of (e.g., xn , sin(x), ex ).