SHES 2303 MATHEMATICS IN BIOLOGY

TUTORIAL 5

1. Find the differential dy for the following functions.

(a). y = x2 + x).
(b). y = sin(x2 +√1).
(c). y = log(1 + t).

2. Find the linearisation of f (x) at x = a for the following functions.

(a). f (x) = x + 1/x, a = 1.

(b). f (x) = √
tan x, a = π.
(c). f (x) = x2 + 9, a = −4.

3. Use the linear approximation (1 + x)k ≈ 1 + kx for small x to find an approximation for the
following functions.

(a). f (x) = (1 + x)−1/2 .

(b). f (x) = 1/(1 − x).
(c). f (x) = (1 − x)4 .

4. Find the linearisation of f (x) = log(1 + x) at x = 0. What does this suggest about
limx→0 log(1 + x)/x?
√
5. Find the linearisation
√ of f (x) = x + 1 + sin x at x = 0. How is it related to separate
linearisations of x + 1 and sin x?

6. Use linearisation to find an approximation to (8.88)1/3 .

7. A forestry officer measured the diameter of a tree as 10 cm in 2008. A year later, he

returned to the same tree and found that the circumference of the tree had increased 2 cm.
Approximately how much did the tree’s diameter and cross-section area increased?

8. The population size of species X increases according to the function f (t) = 100ex , while that
of species Y changes as f (t) = 50 + 1000t − 50t2 . At what time do the two species have the
same population size?
p
9. Can Newton’s Method be used to find the root of |x − π|? Describe how it behaves in this
particular example.

KTF 2009/2010 (2)

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