Solutions to Chapter 2 Quiz: Dierentiation

Vidit Nanda
Problem 1
This problem tests your understanding of logarithmic dierentiation. Along the way, you need to
use the product and chain rules as well.
Question. If f(x) = x
2x
, compute
df
dx
.
Answer: 2x
2x
(1 +ln(x)).
Lets see: this function f(x) = x
2x
looks complicated because it has x appearing in the base as
well as the exponent! What will make things easier is to compute the logarithm of this function.
Namely,
ln(f(x)) = 2x ln(x).
Now things are much better: this is just a product of two functions of x. Lets write down this new
function g(x) = ln(f(x)) = 2x ln(x) and compute
dg
dx
. Using the product rule and the fact that the
derivative of ln(x) is
1
x
, we have
dg
dx
= 2 ln(x) +
2x
x
.
We can simplify this some more to get:
dg
dx
= 2(ln(x) +1).
This is not the nal answer! We only have the derivative of g with respect to x, where g = ln(f).
But we can relate this to the answer we really want using the chain rule. Remember,
dg
dx
=
dg
df

df
dx
.
But
dg
df
=
1
f
and we have just computed
dg
dx
above! Putting all this together, the following equation
emerges:
2(ln(x) +1) =
1
f(x)

df
dx
.
Were almost there! Manipulate the equation above to solve for the unknown
df
dx
like so:
df
dx
= f(x) 2(ln(x) +1)
and now plug in f(x) = x
2x
on the right side to get the correct answer.
Problem 2
This problem tests your ability to use the product and chain rules for computing derivatives that
show up in the curvature formula.
1
2 VIDIT NANDA
Question. Consider the function f(x) =

3 x
2
e
1x
. Use the formula for curvature,
=
|f

|
(1 +|f

|
2
)
3/2
.
to compute the curvature of the graph of f at the point (1,

3).
Answer:

3
8
.
In order to use the curvature formula, we need to evaluate f

=
df
dx
and f

=
d
2
f
dx
2
at x = 1. First,
we need the product and chain rules for f

as follows:
df
dx
=

3
_
2xe
1x
x
2
e
1x

3(2x x
2
)e
1x
.
Next, we need to compute f

. The process is very similar, we need the product and chain rules:
d
2
f
dx
2
=

3
_
(2 2x)e
1x
(2x x
2
)e
1x

3(2 4x +x
2
)e
1x
.
Back to the curvature formula: on the graph of f at the point (x, f(x)) we know (note that the
question gives us the formula!) that the curvature is
(x) =
|f

(x)|
(1 +|f

(x)|
2
)
3/2
when x = 1, we can evaluate
(1) =
|f

(1)|
(1 +|f

(1)|
2
)
3/2
Okay, so we must evaluate the derivatives f

and f

that we have computed above at the point x = 1.

This is easy, since e
1x
equals 1 when x = 1, and so:
f

(1) =

3(2 1)1 =

3 and f

(1) =

3(2 4 +1)1 =

3
Plug this into the formula for (1) to get
(1) =
|

3|
_
1 +|

3|
2
_
3/2
.
Now, the denominator becomes
(1 +3)
3/2
= 4
3/2
= (

4)
3
= 2
3
= 8,
and the numerator is just

3, so the answer is

3
8
.
Problem 3
This problem tests your knowledge of d as an operator. In both Variations, you are given a
relationship between variables x and y so that it is impossible (or at least, very hard!) to solve for
any variable in terms of the other one. In this case, you can still compute derivatives via implicit
dierentiation.
SOLUTIONS TO CHAPTER 2 QUIZ: DIFFERENTIATION 3
Question. Assume that x and y are related by the equation yln x = e
1x
+ y
3
. Compute
dy
dx
evaluated at x = 1.
Answer: 0.
Here is our starting point, the relation between x and y:
yln x = e
1x
+y
3
.
Apply the dierential d to both sides and get
d(yln(x)) = d(e
1x
) +d(y
3
).
Using the product rule on the left side and ordinary dierentiation on the right side, we have
y
x
dx +ln(x)dy = e
1x
dx +3y
2
dy.
Collect the dx terms on the left and the dy terms on the right:
_
y
x
+e
1x
_
dx =
_
3y
2
ln(x)

dy, and so
dy
dx
=
y
x
+e
1x
3y
2
ln(x)
.
Were almost there! Now, we must gure out how to evaluate this at x = 1. This is not as easy as
one might hope since the right side involves both x and y! To see which value of y one should use,
remember the original equation:
yln x = e
1x
+y
3
and note that at x = 1 this reduces to 0 = 1 + y
3
, so y
3
= 1 and hence y = 1. Finally, plug in
x = 1 and y = 1 into the expression for
dy
dx
above to get the nal answer:
dy
dx

x=1
=
1
1
+e
11
3 ln(1)
= 0.
Problem 4
This problem tests your knowledge of how to use the value of a function and its derivative at a
point to compute a linear approximation near that point.
Question. Use the linear approximation of the function f(x) = arctan (e
3x
) at x = 0 to estimate
the value of f(0.01). Remember that
d
dx
arctan(x) =
1
1 +x
2
.
Answer.

4
+
3
200
.
The basic formula for linearly approximating f at x is given by
f(x +) = f(x) +f

(x) +O(
2
).
We are interested in x = 0, so rst note that f(0) = arctan(1) =

4
. Now, we must compute the value
of the derivative of f at 0. Using the formula for the derivative of arctan along with the chain rule,
we have:
df
dx
=
1
1 +(e
3x
)
2

d
dx
e
3x
, so
df
dx
=
3e
3x
1 +e
6x
.
4 VIDIT NANDA
Evaluating at 0 gives f

(0) =
3
2
. Thats all we need! When = 0.01, the linear approximation
formula above with x = 0 gives
f(0.01) f(0) +f

(0)(0.01)

4
+
3
2
(0.01)

4
+
3
200
.
Problem 5
This is a simple optimization problem.
Question. A rectangular picture frame with total area 50000 cm
2
includes a border which is
1 cm thick at the top and the bottom and 5 cm thick at the left and right side. What is the largest
possible area of a picture that can be displayed in this frame?
Answer: 98 cm490 cm.
Figure 1. A picture frame (dark brown) with the prescribed border.
First, see Figure ?? for the setup involving the frame. We dont know the dimensions of the
frame, only that it must have an area of 50, 000 cm
2
. So lets assume that it is a x cm wide and y cm
tall frame as shown (containing a picture!) in Figure ??.
For this frame, the dimensions of the picture that can be displayed are (x 10) cm(y2) cm.
The reason for this is simple if you understand the Figure. But we dont need two variables! Since
the area of the frame is known, we can see that
xy = 50000, so y =
50000
x
.
Now, the area of the picture is purely a function of the width x, which we write as
A(x) = (x 10)
_
50000
x
2
_
Multiplying out, we see that the function we would like to maximize is:
A(x) = 50000 2x
500000
x
+20
Now, we must nd the critical width by solving
dA
dx
= 0. Lets see:
A

(x) = 2 +
500000
x
2
SOLUTIONS TO CHAPTER 2 QUIZ: DIFFERENTIATION 5
Setting this equal to zero yields the critical width x

,
x
2

= 250000 or x

= 500.
Note that we will discard the negative solution x

= 500 since a negative width would be absurd.

The height is given by y =
50000
x
, so the critical height must be y

=
50000
x

= 100.
Were almost nished! Just compute (x

10) = 490 cm and (y

2) = 98 cm to get the answer.

This would be enough to give you a full score on the Quiz. But in order to sleep peacefully at
night you should also conrm that your solution is actually a maximum! You can do this by using the
second derivative test. This is not so hard, since the second derivative is A

(x) =
2500000
x
3
which is
clearly negative when evaluated at x

.
Problem 6
This problem tests global optimization.
Question. Which of the following statements are true for the function f(x) =
4
x
+ x
4
? In order
to receive full credit for this problem, you must select all the true statements (there may be many)
and none of the false statements.
(1) The global minimum of f for
1
2
x 2 is at x = 1.
(2) The global maximum of f for 2 x 1 is at x = 2.
(3) The global maximum of f for 1 x
1
2
is at x = 1.
(4) f is not dierentiable at x = 0.
(5) The global minimum of f for 1 x 2 is at x = 1.
(6) The global minimum of f for 2 x 2 is at x = 1.
(7) The critical points of f are at x = 1 and x = 1.
(8) The global maximum of f for
3
2
x 2 is at x = 1.
Note that in your Quiz these options may have appeared in some random order.
Answer. The rst four statements are true, the others are false.
First, lets compute the critical points of this function f. Adhering strictly to the denition, we
say that x is a critical point of f if the derivative f

(x) is zero or undened. With this in mind, we

have
f

(x) =
4
x
2
+4x
3
.
When we set this derivative equal to zero and solve for the critical points x

, we get the equation

4x
3

=
4
x
2

, so x
5

= 1
So x

= 1. But thats not all! The derivative f

(x) is undened at 0 just look at the denominator

of the rst term of f

(x) to see that it equals zero. Immediately, we see that (4) is true. Thus, the
critical points of f are 0 and 1. We note that f(0) is undened but f(1) = 4 +1 = 5. What happens
to f(x) as x approaches 0? If you approach from the negative side, you see that the values of f get
smaller and smaller, i.e., they go to . If you approach from the positive side, then the values of
f go to +. Therefore,
There can be no non-zero global extrema in any region containing 0 .
Away from 0 and 1, f

is either strictly positive or strictly negative. So, by plugging in a few

intermediate values of x into the equation of f

you can quickly build the following table.

x < 0 0 < x < 1 x > 1
f

< 0 f

< 0 f

> 0
f decreasing f decreasing f increasing
6 VIDIT NANDA
From this table and the boxed statement, we can get almost all the desired answers. Since f
decreases to the left of x = 1 and increases to the right, it is clear that x = 1 is a local minimum.
Lets also check that (2) and (3) are correct: since f is decreasing in these regions, it is clear that the
left end-points must be the global maxima! Similarly, we can immediately see that (5) is false: by
the boxed statement, 1 can not be the global minimum in any region that contains 0.
Problem 7
This problem tests your knowledge of Newtons method.
Question. To approximate
3

15 (the cube root of 15) using Newtons method, what is the

appropriate update rule for the sequence x
n
?
Answer. x
n+1
=
2x
n
3
+
5
x
2
n
The update rule for applying Newtons method for nding the zero of a function f(x) is given by:
x
n+1
= x
n

f(x
n
)
f

(x
n
)
.
For us, the function whose zero wed like to nd is
f(x) = x
3
15.
You can easily check that f(x) = 0 if and only if x =
3

15. Now, the derivative of this function is

f

(x) = 3x
2
.
Finally, we are ready to apply the update rule to our f:
x
n+1
= x
n

x
3
n
15
3x
2
n
= x
n

1
3
x
n
+
5
x
2
n
=
2x
n
3
+
5
x
2
n
.
Problem 8
This problem tests your understanding of the link between derivatives and linear approximations.
Question. Fill in the blank:
ln
2
(x +h) = ln
2
x + h +O(h
2
)
(Here, ln
2
x means (ln x)
2
.)
Answer: 2
ln(x)
x
.
Remember the basic formula for linear approximation of a function f at a point x:
f(x +h) = f(x) +f

(x)h +O(h
2
)
So, the blank must be lled in by the derivative of ln
2
(x). This is easy to compute if we remember
the chain rule:
d
dx
ln
2
(x) = 2 ln(x)
d
dx
ln(x)
Use the fact that the derivative of ln(x) is
1
x
to get the correct answer. Thats it!
SOLUTIONS TO CHAPTER 2 QUIZ: DIFFERENTIATION 7
Problem 9
This problem tests your ability to compute relative rates of change along with the product rule
and implicit dierentiation.
Question. Recall that the kinetic energy of a body is
K =
1
2
mv
2
where m is mass and v is velocity. Compute the relative rate of change of kinetic energy,
dK
K
, given
that the relative rate of change of mass is 7 and the relative rate of change of velocity is +5.
Answer: 3.
Given K =
1
2
mv
2
, apply d to both sides and use the product rule to get
dK =
1
2
d(mv
2
) =
1
2
_
v
2
dm+2mvdv
_
.
We know the relative rates
dm
m
= 7 and
dv
v
= 5 so we can solve for dm and dv in terms of m and
v:
dK =
1
2
_
7mv
2
+10mv
2
_
=
1
2
(3)mv
2
But the right side is precisely 3K by the formula for kinetic energy, so we have dK = 3K, and hence
dK
K
= 3.
Problem 10
This problem tests your ability to compute higher derivatives. The chain rule may be helpful.
Variation 1. Compute the ninth derivative of (x 3)
10
with respect to x.
Answer. 10!(x 3).
There are many ways to attack this problem. Maybe the simplest thing is to just take a few
derivatives. If you set f(x) = (x 3)
1
0, you can easily see from the chain rule that
df
dx
= 10(x 3)
9
d
dx
(x 3) = 10(x 3)
9
.
Lets repeat:
d
2
f
dx
2
= (10 9)(x 3)
8
.
If we dierentiate 7 more times, the factor in front becomes 10 9 . . . 2 which equals 10! and the
exponent becomes 1. Thus,
d
10
f
dx
10
= 10!(x 3).