School of Mathematics

Georgia Institute of Technology

Undergraduate TA Application Problem Set

Select ONE PROBLEM from the list below to submit with your application. The problem
you select should be one that you are comfortable presenting if you are offered an interview,
as you will be asked to give a teaching demonstration during the interview process.
SHOW WORK IN DETAIL as if you were teaching this problem in your studio class. Your
solutions must be written out by hand and uploaded to the Canvas site by the application
deadline.

Since TAs have ample resources at their disposal prior to classtime, you are allowed to
use books and other written resources to help solve these problems. However, since the
problem set is a portion of the UTA application, you are NOT allowed to:
– ask current math TAs for help
– ask professors for help
– use Wolfram Alpha, Symbolab, Chegg, Integral-Calculator, or other internet sources,
to solve the problems
– work together with another applicant
– copy directly from ANY source
 Problem Set

CHOOSE ONE PROBLEM FROM THE LIST BELOW TO SOLVE AND

SUBMIT WITH YOUR APPLICATION.

1. A string of length L inches is cut into two pieces. One piece is formed into a square,
and the other piece is formed into a circle. Where should the string be cut in order to
minimize the sums of the areas of the square and circle? USE CALCULUS.

2. Evaluate the integral √e2x1−25 dx. Show work to justify all steps using techniques of
R

integration. Using an integral table is not sufficient explanation.

 
a + 2b
3. Let V be the set of vectors in <3 that have the form  2a − b , where a, b ∈ <.
−a + b
(a) Prove that V is a subspace of <3 .
(b) Find a basis for V .

(3xy + y 2 )dx + (2xy + 5x2 )dy, where C : (x − 1)2 +

H
4. Use Green’s Theorem to evaluate C
(y + 2)2 = 1. Assume that the curve C is traversed in a counterclockwise manner.