MTL 100: Calculus

Practice Problems
Continuity, Uniform Continuity and Differentiability

1. Is the converse of Intermediate Value Theorem true? i.e. for any two values x and y, x < y,
in the domain of f , f : [a, b] → R and for any α between f (x) and f (y), there exists some
c ∈ (x, y) such that f (c) = α. Does it follow that f is continuous?

2. (a) Show that f (x) = 1/x is uniformly continuous on the set A = [a, ∞), where a is a
positive constant but not uniformly continuous on S = (0, ∞).
sin x2
(b) Determine the uniform continuity of f (x) = , x ∈ [0, ∞).
1+x
3. If f (x + y) = f (x) + f (y) for all x, y ∈ R and f is continuous at a point of R, then prove
that f is uniformly continuous on R.

4. Show that the equation ex + x3 = 2 has a unique root α in interval [0, 1].

5. Using MVT, Prove the following:

(a) Let f be continuous on [a, b], differentiable on (a, b) and f (x) 6= 0 ∀ x ∈ (a, b). Prove
f 0 (c) 1 1
that there exists c ∈ (a, b) such that = + .
f (c) (a − c) (b − c)
(x − 1)
(b) For x > 1, show that < log x < x − 1.
x
(c) Let f (x) be a function which is continuous on [α, β] and differentiable on (α, β) further
let f (α) = α and f (β) = β. Does there exist points x1 , x2 in (α, β) such that α <
x1 < α+β2
< x2 < β and f 0 (x1 ) + f 0 (x2 ) = 2. Justify.
(d) Let f : (0, ∞) → R be continuous and f (0) = 0. Suppose that f 0 (x) exists for all
f (x)
x ∈ (0, ∞) and f 0 is increasing on (0, ∞). Show that the function g(x) = is
x
increasing on (0, ∞).

6. Let f : [0, 1] → R be continuously differentiable on [0, 1] and twice differentiable on

(0, 1). Suppose that the line segment joining the points (0, f (0)) and (1, f (1)) inter-
sects the graph of f at a point (a, f (a)) where 0 < a < 1. Show that there exists
x0 ∈ [0, 1] such that f 00 (x0 ) = 0.

7. Evaluate the following limits

sin 3x(1 − cos 2x)
(a) lim .
x→0 e x3 − 1
  
9 2 1 1
(b) lim x sin(2/x) − ex − 1 − 3
3
x→∞ x x
8. Find the radius of convergence of the power series

1 1 1 1 1
x + x2 + 2 x3 + x4 + 3 x5 + 2 x6 + · · ·
2 2 2 2 2