MAT135: Calculus 1A

All tutorial problems

1. The red curve in the graph below shows the mean monthly carbon dioxide concentration in parts
per million (ppm) at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, as a function of time t in months from
January 2016 to July 2021. CO2 fluctuates seasonally due to the impact of plant respiration, so the
black curve shows the seasonal adjusted value of CO2 (i.e. the fluctuations have been ‘removed’). In
this problem, we will be working on developing a mathematical model to approximate the red curve.

a) Approximately how much did the monthly mean CO2 increase between January 2016 and January
2021? (Note that the monthly mean is given by the red curve).
b) Find the average rate of increase of the monthly mean CO2 between January 2016 and January
2021. Be sure to include units!
c) Use the information in part b) to find a linear function that approximates the black curve, where
t is in years since beginning of 2016.
d) In preparation for the next part, graph y = sin(x), y = x, y = sin(x) + x and y = x sin(x) on the
same set of axes. What do you notice?
e) The red curve may be approximated by a function of the form h(t) = f (t) + g(t), where f (t) is
sinusoidal, g(t) is linear, and t is in years since beginning of 2016. Find a possible formula for
h(t). (Hint: What is the approximate period of the sinusoidal function f ? What is its amplitude?)
Using Desmos or Geogebra, graph your function using the same scale as in the figure above.

2. Let’s investigate the challenge of controlling exponential growth, applied to the problem of cancer
treatment. Cancer is a collection of diseases in which the patients own cells stop cooperating with
the rest of their body, and decide to reproduce uncontrollably. These cells replicate to form tumour
growths. The goal for most cancer treatments is to remove or kill these misbehaving cells while keeping
the rest of the patient alive. For our problem, we will be assuming a hypothetical situation of a single
tumour growth and one treatment for the tumour. While this is simplified from the reality of cancer
growth and treatment, the goal of this problem is to highlight how scientists mathematically model

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cancer, which is an active area of research that is improving patient care.

a) We will start by assuming that a tumour is discovered in a patient by a doctor during a routine
exam. At the time of discovery, this tumour already has grown to a population of 13,500 cancer
cells. Unfortunately for the patient, it is a particularly aggressive tumour, which each cell repli-
cating (that is, each cell dividing into two) every two days. Create a table projecting the number
of cells in the tumour for every second day over the next 14 days.

b) Given the table of values you just created, write down a model of what the tumour growth will
be over time (measured in days). (Hint: there is a natural choice of a function for things that
double regularly.) Write down this function, f (t), adapted so that the number of cells at day 0
(at t = 0) is 13,500.

c) While our patient is very unlucky with his aggressive cancer, he is fortunate that his doctor can
enroll him immediately in a trial for a novel, breakthrough cancer therapy. In particular, his
doctor prescribes him an experimental cancer vaccine, which trains his own immune system to
produce antibodies and killer t-cells that attack and kill the cancer cells. (Both companies behind
the mRNA COVID vaccines, BioNTech and Moderna, are working on such experimental technol-
ogy - however we are simplifying a bit on how they work for the purposes of this question).

Let’s assume that once the patient produces antibodies after this vaccine, the number of antibodies
begins to grow quadratically with time, following the function g(t) = 50000 ∗ t2 . However, there is
a delay of 7 days after injection while the immune system responds to the shot. Let’s also assume
that each antibody is enough to kill exactly 1 cancer cell. Write down a piece-wise function that
combines f (t) and g(t) to model the number of cancer cells left alive each day after the patient
receives the vaccine. Remember to keep track of the delay in immune system response.

d) Once all cancer cells are dead, the tumour has no way of returning. Using a graph of the two parts
of your function, determine whether this particular cancer vaccine is able to kill off all cancer cells
present in this patient tumour. Approximately which day does this happen?

e) Catching cancer early can have a stronger effect on prognosis than the treatments given. What
would happen in our hypothetical situation if the patient was delayed in receiving the vaccine by
just 2 days (so that the antibody production begins on day 9 instead of day 7)? Use a graph
again to answer this question.

3. Crazy graph
Create a graph of a function f (x) with the following properties. (If it helps, the properties are mostly
listed in order from smallest to largest x-value, i.e. left-to-right on the graph.)
A) f (x) is defined for all x ∈ R
B) limx→−∞ f (x) = ∞
C) limx→−2− f (x) = 3
D) f (x) is discontinuous at x = −2
E) the instantaneous rate of change of f (x) is constant on the interval [−2, −1]
F) f (x) is continuous everywhere in the interval [−1, 1] except at 0, where limx→0− f (x) does not
exist (hint: think of oscillating functions)
G) the average rate of change of f (x) on the interval [−1, 1] is 0

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H) f (2) = −1
I) limx→2 f (x) = 5
J) f (x) has only one vertical asymptote, located at x = 3
K) limx→3+ f (x) = +∞
L) f (5) < 0
M) limx→∞ f (x) = 0
N) f (f (−1)) = 1

4. More Coconuts!

6.125 Meters

You are at a zoo, watching a monkey playing catch with a coconut. The monkey is behind a tall win-
dow approximately 7 meters high. The coconut, however, is being tossed above the top of the window,
higher that you can see. What you do see, however, is the monkey throwing the coconut up at 14.7
m/s, 6.125 meters below the top of the window frame. We will take the point where the monkey Let’s
go of the coconut as height = 0.

a) Using the information about how fast the monkey threw the coconut, estimate how high the
coconut flew in 0.1 seconds? (Ignore gravity for this part). How high is it in 0.5 seconds? Which
estimate do you think is more correct? Why?
b) Using your fancy smartphone camera, you’re able to take a video of the coconut as it is thrown
up by the monkey and falls back down, and extract the height of the coconut every 0.1 seconds.
The table of recorded values is here:

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Time (s) Height (m)

0.0 0
0.1 1.421
0.2 2.744
0.3 3.969
0.4 5.096
0.5 6.125
2.5 6.125
2.6 5.096
2.7 3.969
2.8 2.744
2.9 1.421
3.0 0

Using a sheet of graph paper (or GeoGebra/Desmos), graph the height of the coconut over time.
What shape do you think fits this function best?
c) Without graphing, given the answer to the previous question, what shape do you think is the
velocity graph?
d) Given the information about height at each time, and what we know about estimating derivatives,
calculate an estimate for the velocity at each timepoint between 0.1 and 0.4, and between 2.6 and
2.9. Plot it on a graph to confirm your answer from the previous part.
e) Recall that speed is the velocity without a sign (or, the absolute value of velocity). During the
time that the coconut is above the window, and we cannot see it, what is the fastest speed it
travels? What is the slowest speed it travels while we cannot see it?
f ) What is special about the point where it is traveling the slowest (imagine where it would be on
your Height - Time graph)?
g) Bonus: can you guess when the coconut is at the highest point?

5. Following the annual Nobel Prize awards last week, in this problem we want to recall the achievements
of University of Waterloo Professor Donna Strickland, who in 2018, became the first Canadian woman
(and third woman ever) to win the Nobel Prize in Physics for her work on high power lasers. High
power lasers have found uses in laser surgery, precise manufacturing, and fundamental science. The
first laser was built by Theodore Maiman in 1960, based on the theories of two later Nobel Prize
winners, Charles Hard Townes, and (University of Toronto grad) Arthur Leonard Schawlow. Since
their inception, lasers have allowed all kinds of scientific breakthroughs, up to and including Professor
Strickland’s work.

The reason that lasers are so important for scientific research is because they allow a large amount of
light at a specific energy to be directed all in exactly the same direction, which makes it easy to control
exactly where the light is going, and how much energy a sample is receiving. However, this also means
that lasers need to be carefully aligned and directed at a sample in order to be useful.

As you probably agree, it is undesirable to do more work than necessary - we want the laser to be
“aligned enough” for our purposes, but we don’t want to put too much work into unnecessary precision,
because that’s a waste of time.

Let’s say you’ve aligned your laser and you know that the angle is correct to within one degree, as in
the following diagram:

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a) According to the information given, what is the smallest possible value of θ (in magnitude)? What
is the largest possible value of θ?
b) Let z be the length of the laser’s path (it’s the hypotenuse of the triangle shown). Note that this
can be measured due to our fancy laser’s feature. How far away is the laser’s actual position on
the target from the desired position? Your answer should contain both z and θ.
c) Note that calculating sine functions for very small angles is difficult without a calculator, and
you’re already standing in the lab with your hands on the laser so you don’t want to go get one.
Since you know θ is small, what linear approximation can you make so that you don’t need to
calculate sine, and could do the calculation in your head?

6. When the world went into lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it triggered a major
reaction from economies around the world. While the effects of COVID are still playing out, it is
difficult to analyze and predict how the economy will evolve and respond. Most of us, however, have
lived through another big economic event in our lives, ”The Great Recession” of 2008. As mentioned
in Hughes-Hallet, economists, market analysts and other commentators on the economy often like to
throw around calculus-terms to describe what is going on during times of economic downturn. For ex-
ample, the Economist ran an article titled “The second derivative may be turning positive” in February
2019, meaning to sound hopeful about the state of the economy. We will be looking at the period of
the ”Great Recession”, looking at one very simple economic indicator: the Gross Domestic Product,
and interpreting what these terms actually mean in the context of the economy.

Below, you will find graphs of the GDP for Canada and the US throughout the period of September
2006 to September 2010. Note that the US Bureau of Economic Analysis publishes data once per quar-
ter (On January 1st, April 1st, July 1st and October 1st), while Statistics Canada provides estimates
monthly.

a) For each of Canada and the US, approximately when did the recession start, meaning, when did
the economy start shrinking? When did the economic recovery start (the economy started growing
again)? Describe what is happening to the first derivative of the GDP during these times.
b) As mentioned above, economists like to talk about the economy using calculus terms. The
Economist article mentioned above talks about the second derivative going from negative to
positive, passing through 0 - what we call an inflection point. Between the start and end of the
recession identified in part a), describe for Canada approximately for which period of time the
second derivative was negative, and when it was positive. How do you know?
c) In practical terms, related to the economy, describe what it means for the second derivative of
the GDP to be negative, and for it to be positive.
d) Given your answers to part b), when was the inflection point approximately for Canada?
e) As mentioned before, the US Fed has only published quarterly data. Suppose we want to estimate
the level of the US economy on May 1st, 2008. Use a tangent line approximation to calculate an

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15200

1620000

14800
Millions of Dollars

Billions of Dollars
1600000

14400

1580000

14000
1560000

2007 2008 2009 2010 2007 2008 2009 2010

Date Date

(a) Data for Canada’s GDP, in 2012 dollars. [?] (b) US GDP, in 2012 dollars. [?]

Figure 1: GDP data

estimate. Do the same for February 2009. Are you under or over estimating for these points?
Why?

7. Often, the eventual importance and significance of research is not obvious when it is conducted. Rather,
some research can gain in significance over time. This has been especially true during the recent pan-
demic, where the battle against COVID-19 has been accelerated by research done years ago. The most
prominent example of this has been the mRNA vaccines, where years of research allowed companies
to cut down development time of a vaccine from years to months. Canadians were fortunate to have
ample vaccine available, but we had to deal with a different issue, “anti-vax” sentiment. To understand
how this sentiment spreads and what effect it may have on future outbreaks of COVID-19, we can also
look to previous research.

In order to understand the psychology of the anti-vax phenomenon, Marcel Salath and Shashank
Khandelwal from the University of Pennsylvania studied the spread of anti-vaccine sentiment through
social media by looking at tweets during the 2009-2010 H1N1 (Swine Flu) pandemic. They measured
several different communities and considered the “assortativity”, which is a measure of how likely an
individual is to prefer to hear opinions from others who share the same opinions, versus others who have
opposing opinions, and looked at how much this correlated with a risk of disease out- break. Although
assortativity is defined to take values between 0 and 1, its values are most commonly between 0 and
0.15.

a) Let R(r) be a function that gives the increased risk of an outbreak of the disease in % for a
community that has an assortativity index of r. That is, R(r) tells us how much more likely a
community with assortativity index r is to have an outbreak than a community with assortativity
index 0.

In figure 1, we see some data the authors collected for the function R(r). These data show that
a person living in a community that has a high assortativity index r (that is, in a community
that is opinionated about vaccines) is more likely to be infected with H1N1 than a person living
in a community with a lower assortativity index r. The horizontal axis shows how opinionated a
community is, as measured by the value r, while the vertical axis gives the increased risk of being
infected. For example, a community where the assortativity index is 0.12 is about 200% more

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Figure 2: Figure 1

likely to have an outbreak of a disease than a community where r = 0.

Interpret each of these quantities in a complete sentence that would be understandable to someone
who doesn’t know calculus (e.g. do not use phrases like “changing at” or “rate of change at”).
For example, when interpreting R(0.06), your response might be: “R(0.06) is the increased risk
of an outbreak in a community that has an assortativity index of 0.06, relative to a community
with assortativity index 0. ”
i. R−1 (150)
ii. R′ (0.09)
iii. (R−1 )′ (600)

b) For each of the quantities in Question 1a), use the graph in figure 1 to approximate the quantities.

8. First, let’s review the behaviour of exponential functions. Exponential functions are commonly used to
model growth, especially of biological phenomena, because they capture the behaviour of cells splitting
in half. We used it before in the first tutorial to model cancer cell growth.

Let’s assume a hypothetical E. coli bacteria replicates every hour (in reality, it can vary a lot depending
on conditions, between approximately 20 minutes in a lab to approximately 1 day in the wild). If we
start off with one cell, we expect a doubling every hour, giving

Time (hour) Number of Cells Backward Change Forward Change Average Change Derivative of f (x)
0 1
1 2
2 4
3 8
4 16
5 32

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a) Fill in the Backward, Forward and Average Change columns of the table with the differences
between the current row number of cells and the previous, and next row, and the average of the
previous and next values respectively.
b) What are we estimating when we calculate the change? What do you notice about the Backward
and Forward Change columns? Which special type of function has this property?
c) Write down the function (f (x)) modeling the Number of Cells over time. Take its derivative, and
then use to fill in the last column. What do you notice when comparing these values to the other
columns? Why is this the case?

9. Let’s now think about the long term behaviour of functions, and how that affects their use in modelling.

Let f (x) = 2x , and let g(x) = x2 .

a) What is limx→∞ f (x)?
b) Referring to the example of cell growth in , what does this mean? Is this sensible? Does this
mean that exponential functions are never a good model for cell growth?
c) As a refresher, what is limx→∞ g(x)? What is limx→∞ f (x) − g(x)?
d) Quadratic functions are common in physics in situations where the forces acting on an object are
constant. For example, the height of a ball dropped from a window 10 meters in the air over time
can be modelled by the following equation:

B(t) = −4.9t2 + 10

What is limt→∞ B(t)? Does this make sense? How do we explain this?
e) What are limx→∞ f ′ (x) and limx→∞ g ′ (x)? Explain what this means in words.
f) Let h(x) = 3 + x1 . What is limx→∞ h(x)? (Feel free to graph this function).
g) Without calculating the derivative, what can you say about limx→∞ h′ (x)?
h) A common building block for mathematical models that does not explode to infinity is the logistic
x
function: S(x) = exe+1 . Graph this function using Desmos/Geogebra. What is limx→∞ S(x)?
i) Without calculating S ′ (x), what is limx→∞ S ′ (x)?
j) Calculate and graph S ′ (x) to check your answer to the previous question.
k) The previous questions suggest that if for a function M (x) we know that limx→∞ M (x) = C for
some constant C, then limx→∞ M ′ (x) = 0 (this is true for cases where the limit limx→∞ M ′ (x)
exists). Is the opposite true: Does limx→∞ M ′ (x) = 0 guarantee that M (x) has a horizontal
asymptote?

d
Hint: you will need to know that dx log(x) = x1 . Think about the behaviour of these two functions.

10. Miranda hems clothes for her friends using her sewing machine. The price she charges, C(A) (in
Canadian dollars), varies with the amount of fabric, A, in m2 .
She uses a complicated formula to determine a fair price; as a result, she doesn’t remember what C(A)
is exactly, but she clearly remembers that C ′ (A) = 1.5−A+3 + 1.
Jenny wants Miranda to hem a cape for her Halloween costume. Jenny originally stated that the cape
was 0.75m wide by 1m long, at which point Miranda gave her an estimate for the price. However, after
measuring, it turns out that the cape is in fact 1.25m by 2m.
Jenny asked Miranda, “how much more will it cost me to hem this (larger) cape?” Within a minute,
she does a few calculations on her notepad, and tells me how much more she will charge me.

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(a) How can she do this without knowing C(A)?

(b) How much did the price increase?
(c) Using the formula provided, we see that C ′ (0) = 4.375, C ′ (A) is always decreasing, and that
limA→∞ C ′ (A) = 1. What does this tell us about Miranda’s pricing, especially for larger pieces?

11. Consider the two functions f (x) and g(x), which we have respectively defined numerically and graph-
ically on the next page.
d
(a) What is the formula for dx (f (x) · (g(g(x)))) ?
(b) Estimate the derivative from (a) evaluated at x = 0 using the information provided.
(c) If we used a tangent line approximation for f (x) at x = 0 to approximate both f (−0.4) and
f (0.4), which estimate would be more accurate? Both x-values are equally close to 0 - how can it
be that one estimate is more accurate than the other?

x -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6

f(x) 1.9229 1.7067 2.0705 3 3.7695 3.6533 2.6371

12. We asked ChatGPT the following questions:

Every spring, thousands of Torontonians take the TTC to visit the cherry blossom trees in
High Park as they bloom. Unfortunately, wind and rain can cause the blossoms to fall off
the trees prematurely. Suppose that at peak bloom, there are 10 000 individual flowers. We
will define a function B(w), which represents the percentage of cherry blossoms (out of the
10 000 in total) that will fall in one day, given the average wind speed w (in km/h) on that
day.
What does it mean in lay terms if B ′ (50) = 0.5?

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Suppose B(50) = 2. Estimate B(90).

Do you think your estimate is an overestimate or an underestimate?
ChatGPT replied:
In simpler terms, if B ′ (50) = 0.5, it means that when the average wind speed is 50 km/h, for
every additional kilometer per hour increase in wind speed, 0.5% of the total cherry blossoms
(out of the 10,000 in total) will fall off the trees prematurely in a single day.
To estimate B(90) based on the given information, we can use the derivative B ′ (w). Since
B ′ (w) represents the percentage of cherry blossoms that will fall for every 1 km/h increase,
the estimated percentage of cherry blossoms falling at 57 km/h can be calculated as:

B(90) = B(50) + B ′ (50) × (90 − 50)

B(90) = 2 + 0.5 × 40
B(90) = 22%

Given the linear approximation used to estimate B(90) based on the information provided
(B ′ (50) = 0.5), the estimate of B(90) = 22% represents a **reasonable estimate**. It is nei-
ther strictly an underestimate nor an overestimate, considering the linear model assumption.
However, it’s important to note that this estimation might not perfectly reflect the actual
scenario due to the potential nonlinear nature of the relationship between wind speed and
cherry blossom fall, as well as the influence of other factors. So, while the estimate is
reasonable within the context of the linear approximation, it may not be highly accurate in
the real world.

(a) How could ChatGPT’s responses be improved? Notably, do you agree that B(90) ≈ 22% is a
reasonable estimate? If not, is it an overestimate or an underestimate?
(b) Find the equation for a continuous and differentiable function that satisfies B(50) = 2, B ′ (50) =
0.5, and the maximum value of B(w) is 100.
(c) Do you think the function you’ve chosen accurately models the situation? Why or why not?
(d) We asked ChatGPT to choose a function as well. When asked for the domain of its chosen
function, it stated:
The domain of the function B(w) in the context of this problem is the set of all possible
wind speeds w for which the function is defined and meaningful. In this situation, there
are no specific restrictions mentioned for wind speed, so the domain of the function B(w)
would typically be all real numbers, or in interval notation: (−∞, +∞).
This means that the function B(w) is defined for any real value of w, including negative
values (which might not have physical meaning in the context of wind speed but are still
part of the mathematical domain).
What is the domain of your chosen function? Do you agree with ChatGPT’s function’s domain?
Why or why not?

13. In ecology, predator-prey relationships are modelled using the Lotka-Volterra model, the same model
discussed in the week 8 pre-class essential video. This model assumes that the population of a predator
depends on how much prey there is for the predator to eat, as without prey, the predator starves to
death. Similarly, the prey population depends on the predator population. With too many predators,
the prey will all be eaten. This way, ecosystems with predators and prey regulate each other, keeping
populations in check.
While we need to wait until MAT136 to understand the formulation of the model, we can use tools
from MAT135 to investigate the resulting patterns of population growth and decay. When the rate of

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species growth and the rate of consumption of the prey by the predator is balanced such that neither
goes extinct, we see an oscillating pattern of population growth and fall in both species.
A real example of this can be found in the data shown in the figure below, plotting the number of furs
trapped by Canadian trappers of the Canadian Lynx (lynx canadensis) and the American Hare (lepus
americanus) over the 19th and early 20th centuries. The number of animals trapped is proportional to
their population, which allows us to see the dependence between the two populations.

For this question, we will investigate hypothetical populations of hares and foxes in an ecosystem. (The
above image is just a real-life example.)
Let x be the population of hares and y be the population of foxes. Let’s assume that the relationship
between them can be modelled as:

1 = 0.5 · x − 2 · ln(x) + y − 2 · ln(y)

(a) Use Desmos to plot the relationship between x and y. What sort of shape is it? Why does it look
so different from the example given on the first page? Hint: it’s not quite any shape we have a
word for, so just describe its shape in words.
(b) Without calculating any values, what property do you expect from the tangent line of this rela-
tionship when the hares are at a maximum/minimum? What about when foxes are at a maxi-
mum/minimum?
(c) Come up with an equation for the slope of the tangent line in the graph at any given point (a, b)
on the curve.
(d) At what population of hares does the population of foxes reach its maximum? What about its
minimum?
(e) Come up with an equation for the maximum and minimum population of foxes in this ecosystem.
Your equation should not contain the variable x. (It is tricky to solve this formula without a
graph or a computer, but we should be able to write it down).

14. Suppose P (t) represents the annual net profit of a small company (in thousands of dollars) in one week
when employees work (on average) t hours that week. Suppose also √ that employees’ working time is
tracked perfectly by an atomic clock (even if they work exactly 30 2 hours per week), so t can be any
real number. Furthermore, we expect that P (t) is a continuous function.

t 24 30 32 40 48 50 60
P (t) 3 3.75 4.5 4.25 4.5 5 4.5

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For parts (d), (e), (f), and (g) if your answer is yes, explain why. If no, provide a counterexample (a
drawing is fine - you don’t need to find an explicit equation).

Hint: It might help you to plot the information you’re given and draw some potential functions for
P (t). You can use this Desmos link (click here) to visualize the table of values, or you can plot it on
paper/a tablet.

(a) Based only on the information above, where do you think P (t) might have local extrema?
(b) What additional information would you need to confirm your answer in part (a)?
(c) What is the domain of P (t)?
(d) Suppose that t = 50 is a critical point. Is it possible for P (50) to be a local minimum?
(e) Suppose that we know that the maximum value of P (t) over its entire domain is 5. Is this sufficient
evidence that P (50) is a local maximum? Is it sufficient evidence that P (50) is a global maximum?
(f) Due to new government regulations, the company is now obligated to pay H(t) in healthcare
benefits (in thousands of dollars) to its employees. The amount of benefits depends on how long
employees work, and H(t) > 0 for all t > 0. The net profit of the company can now be expressed
as P (t) − H(t).
Assuming that P (50) is a global maximum for P (t), is it certain that t = 50 is a global maximum
for P (t) − H(t)?

15. Picture hanging problem - adapted from an article by Gabriela R. Sanchis in the Convergence
Magazine of the Mathematical Association of America, first posed by Regiomontanus in 1471.

Supposed a 4 foot tall painting is hanging with the bottom of the painting 8 feet from the ground
on the wall in an art gallery. Consider a 6’3” tall person viewing this painting, so their eye height is
approximately at 6 feet. How far away from the wall should this person stand so that the painting
looks largest to them? (In other words, we want the height of this painting to take up the largest angle
in their field of view.)
Draw a diagram of this situation to help figure it out. Note that you only need to work in 2 dimensions;
all we care about is the height of the painting and the person’s eyes, and how far from the wall the
person stands.
Hint: you may need to look up the derivative of the arctan function.

16. In the following questions, we will be studying practical models for the absorption of drugs/compounds
into the blood stream, which is a subset of pharmacokinetics. Specifically, we will be looking at the
pharmacokinetics of caffeine and alcohol, and using models of how these compounds are absorbed
and eliminated to study what the maximum achieved blood concentration would be. (We strongly
recommend against actually achieving the maximal blood concentration of either of these compounds.)
Caffeine follows “first order pharmacokinetics”: the rate (over time) at which caffeine is eliminated
from the blood stream is proportional to the amount of caffeine in the blood stream. We will be
investigating the amount of caffeine over time in a person’s bloodstream after consuming a dose of
caffeine.
We will consider the small intestine and the blood stream as a closed system, so that anything leav-
ing the intestine must enter the blood stream. This is not perfectly realistic, but it’s a simplifying
assumption.

(a) What sort of function can we use to model the elimination of the caffeine from the blood stream
over time, ignoring absorption? How do we know this?

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(b) If the small intestine starts with 205 mg of caffeine, and the blood absorbs caffeine at a rate
proportional to the amount in the intestine, how can we model the amount of caffeine in the small
intestine over time?

(c) Ignoring elimination, and given your answer to the previous question, how can we model the
absorption of caffeine into the blood from the small intestine (over time)? In other words, what
is the amount of caffeine in the blood over time?

(d) The previous models for absorption and elimination can we combined into what is called a single
compartment first order model. ‘Single compartment’ means we are only interested in the blood,
and no other organs. ‘First order’ means that the rate of absorption/elimination (the ‘first’
derivative) is proportional to the amount of caffeine in the blood.

The model looks like this:

D
c(t) = β
(e−βt − e−αt ),
1− α
where D is the dose of the compound, β is the rate of elimination in the intestine, and α is the
rate of absorption into the bloodstream, which gives the concentration c(t) (in mg/kg) in the
bloodstream at a time t hours.

Given this formula, find an equation for the maximum concentration achieved in the bloodstream,
in terms of the parameters D, β and α.

(e) Let’s take some real values for α and β observed in the literature and calculate these maximum
concentrations achieved for different doses of caffeine ingested. Taking values from [?], we see
that α ≈ 19.8 per hour, and on the highest end of the reported range, β = 0.33 per hour.

When does the caffeine peak in the blood concentration for a dose of 3mg/kg? What is the value
of the peak?

(f) Without calculating any values, does the time when you reach peak concentration change if you
take 5mg/kg instead of 3mg/kg? Does the blood concentration at the peak change?

(g) What about if we take the lowest reported elimination rate, of β = 0.09. Without calculating any
values, does this affect the time and the peak concentration?

(h) Bonus challenge question: Alcohol, unlike caffeine, follows a “zeroth-order” elimination
model, meaning the rate of elimination does not change as the total amount of alcohol in the
bloodstream changes.

Try to write down an equation for the amount of alcohol in the bloodstream over time for a person
taking an initial dose D, with absorption coefficient α and elimination rate β. Once you have
the model, find an equation for the time tmax when the peak concentration in the bloodstream
occurs.

Hint: what do each of the terms in c(t) from part (d) represent? Which of these terms must be
changed?

Extra tutorial problem

Related Rates, or How Calculus can Help You Avoid a Speeding Fine
This question is inspired by a true story which occurred to one Dmitri Krioukov, then a researcher working
at the University of California San Diego. The figures in this question are taken from his account of the
events, the reference to his original description and his “solution” to the problem will be provided with the
solutions document.

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 MAT135: Calculus 1A

Professor Krioukov found himself in a situation where he was charged with running a stop sign, when he
new he had stopped. Confused, he tried to figure out what happened. In this particular case, he discovered
that the police officer was standing in a nearly perpendicular direction to the one he was approaching the
stop sign from. Therefore, the officer was measuring his speed at an angle, and from his position, could only
measure how fast the angle α was changing, not the actual linear speed of the car v.

What Krioukov realized is that if there is a car parked near the stop sign, the obstructed view of the officer
makes it almost impossible to differentiate a car that blows past the stop sign at a moderate speed, and one
that rapidly stops, and rapidly accelerates again. In the next few questions, we will be exploring how this
might be the case.

1. Let’s take x = 0 at the stop sign, such that the car is always moving in a positive direction (and
starting in the negative numbers). We will also take t=0 at the time he passes the stop sign. A car
moving with a velocity of v0 will then be at x(t) = v0 t at any point in time. Let ω(t) = dα
dt . Find an
expression for ω(t) in terms of time, v0 , and r0 .
2. Letting v0 be 11 m/s and r0 be 11 m, plot a graph of ω(t) using desmos.

3. Prof. Krioukov claims that he was feeling unwell, and being distracted by his sneezing he came to a
very abrupt stop at this stop sign. Let’s investigate now what happens when a car decelerates at a
constant acceleration of −a0 , and then accelerates at a0 m/s2 approaches the stop sign. In this case,
x(t) = 21 a0 t2 , but v(t) = a0 |t| (why the absolute sign? to take care of the deceleration to acceleration
switch). Find the formula for ω in terms of r0 and a0 in this case.
2
4. Graph the function you just found with a0 = 10 m/s , and r0 being 11 m. What do you notice about
its shape before -2 and after +2?
5. In the diagram below, Prof. Krioukov sketched out the situation that occurred to him. When he
approached the stop sign, there was a car parked in the lane between him and the police officer. He
was driving the smaller Toyota Yaris, with the Subaru Outback blocking a clear view of the intersection.
His car is 3.81m long (150 inches), while the larger car was 4.8 meters long (189 inches). Assuming
the radar gun used by the officer needs a completely unobstructed view of the situation, and he was
2
traveling with the path x(t) = 21 a0 t2 with a0 = 10 m/s , and r0 being 11 m, find the time for which the
car is at least partially obstructed. Assume that the outback is centered at the stop sign (we simplify
the situation of the second car also moving), and that the separation between lanes is 1m.

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 MAT135: Calculus 1A

6. From the point of view of the officer, did the officer ever see Prof. Krioulov slow down? (Hint, if you
have time, find the location of the maximum values of ω(t) for the car).
7. In this situation, can the officer be convinced beyond reasonable doubt that the prof never stopped at
the stop sign?

In the end, Krioulov did not end up paying a fine. I don’t think we will ever know if he actually stopped at
this stop sign, but he was able to convince a judge that the officer had no way of reasonably telling.

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 MAT135: Calculus 1A

Solutions
1. (a) It’s about 402.5ppm in January 2016 and 415.5ppm in January 2021, so the increase is about 13
ppm.
13 ppm ppm 13 ppm ppm
(b) ≈ 0.2167 or 5 years ≈ 2.6 year
60 months month
(c) Parts a) and b) asked us to find the slope and y-intercept, so g(t) = 2.6t + 402.5
(d) We should notice that adding sin(x) to x introduces periodic oscillation around an increasing
mean.

(e) The period of the function is 1 year. The amplitude is approximately (407 − 401)/2 = 3. So, we
can take f (t) = 3 sin(2πt), and using g(t) from before: h(t) = 3 sin(2πt) + 2.6t + 402.5.

2. (a) The resulting numbers are: 13500, 27000, 54000, 108000, 216000, 432000, 864000, 1728000 on
days 0 through 14.
(b) The model is f (t) = 13500 · 2t/2
(
13500 · 2t/2 t<7
(c) h(t) =
13500 · 2t/2 − 50000(t − 7)2 t≥7
(d) In this case, the treatment is able to reduce the number of live cancer cells to 0 around day 10.
Note that if you extend this function further, it will explode again (exponential grow faster than
quadratics, as we know), but the application regime of this model means that it is only valid for
positive y (negative live cells does not make sense).

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 MAT135: Calculus 1A

(e) In this case, the number of live cells never goes to 0, and so the cancer continues to grow, until
at some point the patient inevitably dies.

3. Here is a sample solution, though other solutions are certainly possible.

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 MAT135: Calculus 1A

4. a) The coconut will be 1.47 meters in the air at 0.1 seconds, and 7.35 meters in the air at 0.5 seconds.
The first one is more correct, as we are using a tangent line approximation, which is valid for
small differences in time.
b) The graph of the points and the function of best fit is below. The shape of the function looks like
a parabola, or a quadratic/square function.

c) The velocity can be seen as the derivative of a height, and since the height is proportional to t2 ,

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 MAT135: Calculus 1A

the velocity should be proportional to 2t, or a linear function.

d) The estimated derivatives are as in the table below. Note we used an estimate from both sides to
be more accurate.
Time (s) Height (m) Velocity (m/s)
0.0 0
0.1 1.421 13.87
0.2 2.744 12.74
0.3 3.969 11.61
0.4 5.096 10.78
0.5 6.125
2.5 6.125
2.6 5.096 -10.78
2.7 3.969 -11.61
2.8 2.744 -12.74
2.9 1.421 -13.87
3.0 0

e) The fastest speed that it goes happens just at the edge of the window, at approximately 10.29
m/s. The slowest speed has to be 0, or the coconut will not fall back down! We can also infer
this from the graph of the speeds, it is a straight line that starts out positive and ends negative,
so it has to pass through 0 at some point.
f) That is the point at which the coconut is the highest, and it starts to fall down.
g) It happens at 1.5 seconds, when the velocity line passes through y=0.

5. a) According to the information given, it is 0 ± 1.

b) The laser light will be a distance of exactly z sin(θ) from the centre of the target.
c) In radians, z sin(θ) ≈ zθ for small angles. In fact, this is called the “small angle approximation”
and is widely used in various fields of physics, in cases where imperfect precision is sufficient, and
so calculating sine functions exactly is unnecessary.

6. Answers to this question are approximate by nature of interpreting discrete data as a continuous
function.

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 MAT135: Calculus 1A

a) The derivative becomes negative in July 2008 for both countries. It turns back to positive in May
2009 for Canada, and April 2009 for the US (possibly because of the difference in sampling).
b) The second derivative is negative from July 2008 to approximately December 2008, and then
positive January 2008 - May 2009. We can tell by looking for the concave up section of the curve
for positive second derivatives, and concave down for negative second derivatives.
c) The second derivative is negative when the GDP increases less next month than it increased
this month, or decreases more next month than it increased this month. Conversely, the second
derivative is positive when the GDP increases more next month than in increased this month, or
decreases less next month than in increased this month.
d) The infection point is somewhere around December 2008 to January 2009.
e) The approximate value is 14920 Billions of Dollars for May 2008, which is probably an overestimate
as the curve is concave down. For February 2009, it is approximately 14370 Billions of dollars,
and in this case an underestimate, because the curve is concave up.

7. a) i) “The assortativity index of a community that is 1.5 times more likely to contract the illness
than a community with assortativity index 0. ”
ii) “A community that has an assortativity index of 0.09 is approximately R′ (0.09)/100 times
more likely to have an outbreak than a community with assortativity index of 0.08. ”
iii) “A community that is 6 times as likely to contract an illness due to its assortativity index has
an assortativity index that is approximately (R−1 )′ (600) times higher than a community that is
5.99 times as likely to contract an illness due to its assortativity index. ”
b) By reading off the graph in figure 1, we see R−1 (150) ≈ 0.09.
ii) The approximate slope of the line in figure 1 is 50/0.03 which is approximately equal to 1667.
iii) (R−1 )′ (600) is approximately equal to 0.03/50 = 6 · 10 − 4, since the inverse function of a
linear function is a linear function, and this is the slope of the “inverse” line.

Time (hour) Number of Cells
0 1
1 2
2 4
3 8
4 16
5 32
Backward Change Forward Change Average Change Derivative of f (x)
- 1 - 0.69
1 2 1.5 1.39
2 4 3 2.77
4 8 6 5.55
8 16 12 11.09
16 - - 22.18

8. a)
b) We end up estimating the derivative, as the difference between consecutive time-points is 1. The
differences are directly proportional to the value of the number of cells, only exponential functions
have this property.
c) f (x) = 2x . f ′ (x) = ln(2) · 2x . Averaging the forward and backward difference is a lot closer to
the value of f ′ (x) than either of the two.

9. Problem 3

a) The limit is +∞.

b) It means that the population will continue growing forever. This is not sensible in the real world,
as resources are finite. However, when you are modeling division of cells that are not constrained
by their environment, exponential functions are the natural answer.

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 MAT135: Calculus 1A

c) Both limits are +∞.

d) The limit is −∞. This is not sensible, and is explained by the fact that once the ball hits the
ground, it stops falling. As always, the domain of applicability is important for mathematical
models.
e) Both limits are +∞. This means that not only do the functions continuously keep growing as x
goes to ∞, but they will continue becoming steeper, and the rate at which they grow will increase.
f) The limit of h(x) and ∞ is 3.
g) We know limx→∞ h′ (x) = 0. This must be true, as if it was anything other than 0, then h(x)
would have a non-zero slope forever, and then keep growing (or falling) forever. The only way to
approach a horizontal asymptote is to have the derivative approach 0.
h) The limit is 1.
i) Once again, it must be 0 (but this time, it approaches from above, not below).
ex
j) S ′ (x) = (1+ex )2

k) Let L(x) = log(x), then limx→∞ L′ (x) = 0, but limx→∞ L(x) = +∞.

10. (a) She can do this by using a tangent line approximation at A = 0.75 to estimate C(2.5) − C(0.75).
(b) Using point slope form, we have the tangent line equation

C(2.5) − C(0.75) = C ′ (0.75)(2.5 − 0.75)

Since C ′ (0.75) ≈ 3.49 we get that C(2.5) − C(0.75) ≈ 5.24$.

(c) This tells us that Miranda charges less per square meter, the more fabric she is given. In other
words, it’s cheaper to order her services ‘in bulk’. However, she will always charge at least an
extra 1$ per added m2 of fabric.

11. (a) d
dx (f (x) · (g(g(x)))) = f ′ (x) · g(g(x)) + f (x) · g ′ (g(x)) · g ′ (x)
(b) Estimating f ′ (0) from the left gives 4.6475 and from the right gives 3.8475, so the average (and
best guess for f ′ (0)) is 4.2475.
True values for g are g(0) = 0.86, g(g(0)) = 0.8174 g ′ (0) = 0.86 and g ′ (0.86) = −2.1422; estimates
from the graph should be somewhat close to these values.
Therefore, the estimate for the entire derivative should be close to (but perhaps not exactly):

4.2475 · 0.8174 + 3 · −2.1422 · 0.86 = −0.2055

(c) Using the tangent line approximation y ≈ 4.6475(x) + 3 we get that f (0.4) ≈ 4.859 and f (−0.4) ≈
1.141, so f (−0.4) is a much closer estimate.
While it’s true that tangent line approximations are often locally accurate, their accuracy depends
significantly on the shape of the function. If the derivative of f changes differently on either side
of x = 0, this can impact the accuracy of our estimations.
In this case, it seems that the derivative is significantly smaller near x = 0.4 than near x = 0,
whereas the derivative near x = −0.4 is closer to that of x = 0.

12. (a) Importantly, ChatGPT did not indicate the inherent approximate nature of its interpretation. It
should use the word “approximately” or “we should expect...” instead of confidently stating that
an increase in wind speed will cause another 0.5% of cherry blossoms to fall. Although it’s less

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 MAT135: Calculus 1A

important, ChatGPT is also excessively wordy. A more concise answer would be clearer for the
reader.
This is not a reasonable estimate, as it’s very likely this function is nonlinear. Winds of this speed
can break branches off trees entirely, and sometimes even cause power outages - it seems unlikely
that 78% of flowers would remain unharmed.
In fact, the following news article from Chad Merrill of WTOP News in Washington (2023) claims
such winds would down at least 50% of all flowers. https://wtop.com/weather-news/2023/03/
gusty-damaging-winds-will-end-peak-bloom-of-cherry-blossoms/
(b) One possible function is:
−98
B(w) = (w − 442)2 + 100
(50 − 442)2
This function was found by starting with a parabola in vertex form, where the y-value of the
vertex is set to 100 (so that it’s the maximum value):

y = a(h − k)2 + 100

Then, the following system of nonlinear equations was solved for a and h:

B(50) = a(50 − h)2 + 100 = 2

B ′ (50) = 2a(50 − h) = 0.5

Parabolas are continuous and differentiable, as required.

(c) This function isn’t very reasonable. While it satisfies the requirements, we see that the function
decreases after w = 442, implying that winds faster than 442 km/h would be less destructive,
which isn’t realistic. Furthermore, for w ∈ [0, 46.02] the function is negative, implying that mild
winds would magically regenerate the cherry blossoms, which is absurd.
It might be easier to model this phenomenon using a piecewise function that is continuous, but
not always differentiable (i.e. at the connection points).
(d) The domain of this function is [0, ∞). We should not define B(w) for negative wind speeds because
that doesn’t make sense. ChatGPT acknowledges that negative values have no physical meaning,
but includes them anyway, which is rather silly. One could also consider capping off the domain
at the highest recorded wind speed, which is currently under 500km/h, but this isn’t necessary
given that all behaviour after a certain point will be identical.

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 MAT135: Calculus 1A

13. a)
The shape is a deformed ellipse. Importantly, y is not a unique function of x, and it is a closed
shape, suggesting that y(t) and x(t) will be oscillating.
b) The slopes are vertical/horizontal for x and y’s critical points respectively.
dy −((−4+x)·y)
c) We compute dx = (2x·(−2+y)) , and so the tangent line at a point (a, b) can be found using
point-slope form: " #
dy
y= (x − a) + b
dx (x,y)=(a,b)
 
−((−4 + a) · b)
y= (x − a) + b
(2a · (−2 + b))
dy
d) Both happen at x = 4. dx is 0 when x = 4 or y = 0, however, y = 0 does not lie on the original
curve defined by 1 = 0.5 · x − 2 · ln(x) + y − 2 · ln(y).
e) We plug x = 4 into the original curve.

1 = 2 − 2 · ln(4) + y − 2 · ln(y)

14. (a) It would be reasonable to guess there are local minima at t = 24, 40 and local maxima at t = 32, 50.
(b) We know that a point on a graph is a local maximum/minimum if it is above/below all the other
nearby points on the graph. So, to check whether the answers in (a) are truly maxima/minima,
we should check the values of our function near those t values.
It would also be helpful to check the first derivative of these points; if the first derivative is non-
zero, we can be certain these points are not maxima/minima. However, if the first derivative
is zero or doesn’t exist, these points are likely to be maxima/minima, but they might also be
inflection points. In this case, we’d additionally need to check the second derivative at those
points.
(c) The domain of P (t) is [0, 168] because there are only 168 hours in a week. Of course, it’s imprac-
tical (and dystopian) for employees to literally work all the time, but it’s theoretically possible.
(d) Yes, it is possible. If there were local maxima located in the intervals (48, 50) and (50, 60),
where the values of these local maxima exceed 5, P (50) would now lie in a ‘valley’ between
two ‘mountains’. Since we can’t exactly determine the locations of local maxima given a table

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 MAT135: Calculus 1A

of values, we can’t rule out this possibility. In the example below, there are local maxima at
t = 49, 51 and a local minimum at t = 50. These points are all critical points because P ′ (t) does
not exist (due to the ‘corners’ in the graph).

(e) Yes, this is sufficient evidence to conclude that P (50) is a global maximum because P (50) =
max P (t) = 5. It’s possible that there are other values of t such that P (t) = 5, but that just
means that the function attains its global maximum multiple times - this doesn’t change the fact
that P (50) is (also) a global maximum.
t
(f) No, we cannot be certain. If H(t) = 20 , then the global maximum of P (t) − H(t) occurs at t = 32.
t
However, if H(t) = 50 , the global maximum occurs at t = 50. See the points P (t) − H(t) plotted
below for both choices of H(t).

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 MAT135: Calculus 1A

4 feet
𝛽
α
x

8 feet
6 feet

15.
We are trying to maximize β − α. We can write down the angles in terms of the distance from the
painting x, and lengths we are given, so β = arctan( x6 ), and α = arctan( x2 ).
We can then take the derivative of β − α with respect to x, and find the critical points. The derivative
is:
−6 2
2
+
36 + x 4 + x2
Setting to 0 and rearranging to solve for x:
−6 2
0= +
36 + x2 4 + x2
72 + 2x2
0 = −6 +
4 + x2
72 + 2x2
6=
4 + x2
24 + 6x = 72 + 2x2
2

4x2 = 48
x2 = 12
√
We thus get that x = ± 12 are both critical points, but since x represents our distance from the
painting (and we can’t glitch√
through the wall), the negative value is nonsensical and can be disregarded.
Therefore, we should stand 12 ≈ 3.5 feet away from the painting.

16. a) Exponential functions are characterized by their rate of change being proportional to their current
value. Since it is elimination, it will be exponential decay: C · e−βt .
b) Using our answer from part (a), and the initial concentration being 205mg, we can write the
amount of caffeine in the intestine at a time t as I(t) = 205 · e−αt .

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 MAT135: Calculus 1A

c) As the intestine loses caffeine, the blood gains it. We also know that we will start off by absorbing
caffeine quickly into the blood, then slow down as all of it is transferred to the blood. Putting
these two ideas together, we know the total caffeine is 205 mg, we start at 0 caffeine in the blood,
and the value grows but slows down exponentially proportional to the quantity in the intestine,
which is 205 · e−αt . So, we can guess that the amount of caffeine in the blood at a time t is
B(t) = 205(1 − e−αt ).
d) This is an optimization problem, so we need to solve for t when c′ (t) = 0. This gives that the
maximum occurs at t = ln(α/β)
α−β , and the value of the maximum is

β
  β−α α !
  β−α
D α α
β
· −
1− α β β

e) Plug in these values into the answer from part (d) to get that the maximum occurs at

ln(19.8/0.33)
t= ≈ 0.21 hours ≈ 13 minutes
19.8 − 0.33
This seems like a reasonable amount of time for the caffeine to achieve its maximal concentration.
(It might even be consistent with your personal experience with caffeine.)
The maximum’s value will be
 0.33
 0.33−19.8  19.8
 0.33−19.8 !
3 19.8 19.8
· − ≈ 2.8 mg/kg
1 − 0.33
19.8
0.33 0.33

It makes sense that the maximal concentration is close to, but somewhat smaller than the dose;
if it were equal to the dose, that would imply the entire dose was absorbed instantly, which is
unrealistic. If it were very small, this would imply that the dose was eliminated significantly faster
than it was absorbed, which isn’t realistic when we know the elimination rate is proportional to
the amount of caffeine in the bloodstream.

f) The time does not change because it does not depend on D. However, the concentration does, as
it depends on D.
g) In this case, both will change, as they both depend on β.
h) Since elimination does not depend on anything except time, we can say that it is eliminated at
a steady rate βt. However, rate of absorption is unchanged, so it should look like our equation
B(t) from part (c). Therefore, the equation could be modeled as:

c(t) = B(t) − β · t = D(1 − e−αt ) − βt

1
and the location of the maximum will be tmax = α ln( α·C
β ).

Solution to extra tutorial problem

v0
r0
a) ω(t) = v0 2 2
1+( r ) t
0

b) See graph below, blue function.

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 MAT135: Calculus 1A

a
r |t|
c) ω(t) = 2
1+ 41 ( a
r) t
4

d) See graph above, red function

e) The car begins to be obstructed when it is 6.45 meters away from the stop sign (you need to account
for the fact that car 2 is a 1 meter closer to the police officer, and therefore casts a shadow longer than
its length onto the path of car 1.) This gives as a time of partial obstruction between -1.136 seconds
and +1.136 seconds.
f) The officer does not see any point in time when ω(t) is decreasing, and definitely does not see it ever
reach 0. That happens between -1.127 seconds and 0 seconds, and at 0 respectively. Therefore, what
the officer sees can be consistent with both the situation of a car slowing to a stop, and a car blowing
through the stop sign, the officer has no way of knowing.

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