92 Pure Mathematics 1 Ex 5a

4 Find the greatest or least values of the following functions:

(a) x 2 —x —2, (b) x(4 —x),
(c) 15 + 2x —x 2, (d) (2x + 3)(x —2).
5 Sketch the graphs of the functions in No. 4.
6 A ball is thrown vertically upwards from ground level and its height after t s
is (15.4r —4.9i2) m. Find the greatest height it reaches, and the time it takes
to get there.
7 A farmer has 100 m of metal railing with which to form two adjacent sides of
a rectangular enclosure, the other two sides being two existing walls of the
yard, meeting at right angles. W hat dimensions will give him the maximum
possible area?
8 A stone is thrown into a mud bank and penetrates (1200i —36 OOOt2) cm in
t s after impact. Calculate the maximum depth of penetration.
9 A rectangular sheep pen is to be made out of 1000 m of fencing, using an
existing straight hedge for one of the sides. Find the maximum area possible,
and the dimensions necessary to achieve this.
10 An aeroplane flying level at 250 m above the ground suddenly swoops down
to drop supplies, and then regains its former altitude. It is h m above the
ground t s after beginning its dive, where h = 8i 2 —80t + 250. Find its least
altitude during this operation, and the interval of time during which it was
losing height.
11 Fig. 5.8 represents the end view of the outer cover of a match box, AB and EF
being gummed together, and assumed to be the same length. If the total
length of edge (ABCDEF) is 12 cm, calculate the lengths of AB and BC
which will give the maximum possible cross-section area.

A _______________ B

E F

D C

Figure 5.8

To differentiate the function f(jt) = jc -1

5.3 In §3.6 we reached the conclusion that if f(x) = x", where n e Z +, then
f'(x) = nx"_1, although we only proved that this was so for n = 1, 2, 3 and 4. In
this section we shall prove that it is also true when n = —1 , that is, we shall