Math131 Calculus I

The Tangent & Velocity Problems

Notes 2.1

I.

The Tangent Problem

ex Find the equation of the line tangent to the graph of f ( x) = x 3 + 1 at x = 1. What do we need to write the equation of a line?

What might we do now?

Lets use a table: P = ( x 1.01 1.001 0.9 0.99 y

) point Q (x,y) slope of PQ ( m PQ )

Thus we can estimate the slope of the line at our point P( And we can now write the equation of the tangent line:

) to be: m =

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Note: If you are given data points rather than a point and an equation, you can find the slope by taking the average of the slopes of the two closest secant lines.

Math131 Calculus I

Notes 2.1

page 2

II.

The Velocity Problem

ex A particle moves on a line away from its initial position so that after t hours it is s = 3t 2 + t miles away from its initial position. (a) Find the average velocity of the particle between t = 1 and t = 3. (b) Approximate the instantaneous velocity at t = 1 by using values at t = 1.1, t = 1.01, t = 1.001. (c) Write the equation of the tangent line to s = 3t 2 + t at t = 1. (d) How are tangent line and instantaneous velocity related? Instantaneous velocity

Formula for average velocity

_______________________________________________________________________ (a)

(b)

P=( t 1.1 1.01

) s point Q(t,s) average velocity between P & Q

1.001

instantaneous velocity at t = 1 is approximately = (c) (d)