Math 265 (Butler)

Practice Midterm I — A (Solutions)

1. A particle moves through three dimensional space with velocity

v(t) = hsec2 t, 2 sec t tan t, tan2 ti.

At time t = 0 the particle is at h0, 1, 2i, find the position function of the particle for
−π/4 ≤ t ≤ π/4.

If r(t) is the position function then r0 (t) = v(t). So taking antiderivatives we

have
Z Z Z Z 
2 2
r(t) = v(t) dt = sec t dt, 2 sec t tan t dt, tan t dt
 Z 
2
= tan t + C, 2 sec t + D, (sec t − 1) dt
 
= tan t + C, 2 sec t + D, tan t − t + E .

Two of the three integrals are straightforward. The last one is the trickiest
but this follows by relating tan2 t (something which we cannot directly inte-
grate) to sec2 t (something which is easy to integrate). Now all that is left is
to determine the constants C, D, E. We have

r(0) = hC, 2 + D, Ei = h0, 1, 2i

giving the constants we need. So we have that the position function of the
particle is  
r(t) = tan t, 2 sec t − 1, tan t − t + 2 .

(The condition for −π/4 ≤ t ≤ π/4 is not needed directly, it only is used to
guarantee that we stay away from the vertical asymptotes (solutions cannot
be pushed past vertical asymptotes, something you will learn in your future
math classes).)
2. Find the point on the plane x + 2y = 5 + 3z which is closest to the point (4, 4, −7).
(Hint: you do not need calculus to find the answer. Useful hint: the line that
connects the point (4, 4, −7) to the nearest point on the plane will be perpendicular
to the plane.)

Based on the hint, the useful one, we first find the line that connects the
point that is given, (4, 4, −7) to the nearest point in the plane. Since this
is perpendicular to the plane the directional vector of the line is the same
as the normal vector of the plane, rewriting the equation for the plane as
x + 2y − 3z = 5 we see that the desired vector is h1, 2, −3i.
With our point and direction we have that the line connecting these two
points (in parametric form) is

x = 4 + t,
y = 4 + 2t,
z = −7 − 3t.

We need to find where this line and the plane intersects. This will occur
when x + 2y − 3z = 5, substituting in the above values for x, y, z we have
that the correct value of t will be when

5 = (4 + t) + 2(4 + 2t) − 3(−7 − 3t) = 4 + t + 8 + 4t + 21 + 9t = 33 + 14t

or rearranging
14t = 5 − 33 = −28 or t = −2.
Plugging this value in we find the desired point occurs at

x = 4 + (−2) = 2,
y = 4 + 2(−2) = 0,
z = −7 − 3(−2) = −1.

So the closest point is (2, 0, −1).

3. Show that the parametric curve

√

x(t), y(t), z(t) = 1 − sin(2t), 2(sin t + cos t), cos(2t)

lies on a sphere centered at the origin. Also, find the radius of the sphere.

2
2
2
We need to check that x(t) + y(t) + z(t) is a fixed constant, i.e., it
does not depend on t. So computing we
To print have math symbols, click the
higher-resolution
Hi-Res Fonts for Printing button on the jsMath control panel.

2
2
2
2 √
2
2
x(t) + y(t) + z(t) = 1−sin(2t) + 2(sin t+cos t) + cos(2t)
puleshan Toggle Home 2 Published2 Log Settings
= 1 − 2 sin(2t) The Sage
+ sin 2
(2t) + 2 sin2 t + 2· 2| sin{z
t cos }t +2Help
cos tReport
+ cos (2t) Sign out
a Problem
Notebook
Version 4.3.4 =sin 2t
2 sin(2t) + 2 sin(2t) + sin (2t) + cos (2t) +2 sin2 (t)2
+ cos2 (t) 2


= 1 − Untitled Save
| {z } | {z Save & quit} Discard & quit

last edited on April 09, 2010 07:45 AM by puleshan

=1 =1
File... Action... Data... sage Typeset = 1 + 1 + 2 = 4 = 22 .
Print Worksheet Edit Text Undo Share Publish

Therefore the points on this parametric curve lie on the sphere of radius 2.
t=var('t')
parametric_plot3d((1-
(On a side sin(2*t),sqrt(2)*(sin(t)+cos(t)),cos(2*t)),(t,0,7))
note the plot of the points is shown below. For people who are
very good at visualizing you can see that this curve is the intersection of
x2 + y 2 + z 2 = 22 and the cylinder (x − 1)2 + z 2 = 1.)

Get Image

evaluate
4. Find the area of the quadrilateral in the plane with vertices located at (3, 1), (7, 3),
(4, 4) and (0, 3) using vector techniques.

So we are looking for the area shown in the figure below.

The technique that we have learned for finding area of triangles using vec-
tors is to take the magnitude of the cross product and divide by 2. But
cross product only works in three dimensions. That is easy to fix, we will
think of these points as (3, 1, 0), (7, 3, 0), (4, 4, 0) and (0, 3, 0) (i.e., all the z
coordinates are 0).
So let us break the quadrilateral into two triangles and use cross products
to find the area. Namely we will use the triangle with corners at (3, 1, 0),
(7, 3, 0) and (4, 4, 0) (so we will use the vectors h−4, −2, 0i and h−3, 1, 0i)
and the triangle with corners at (4, 4, 0), (0, 3, 0) and (3, 1, 0) (so we will use
the vectors h4, 1, 0i and h3, −2, 0i). So we have

kh−4, −2, 0i × h−3, 1, 0ik kh4, 1, 0i × h3, −2, 0ik

Area = +
2 2
kh0, 0, −10ik kh0, 0, −11ik 21
= + = .
2 2 2
(It is easy to directly find the area of the quadrilateral directly to see that
this is the correct value.)

For completeness we do the cross products. We have

 
 i j k   
   −4 −2 
h−4, −2, 0i × h−3, 1, 0i =  −4 −2 0  =   k = h0, 0, −10i,
 −3 1 0  −3 1 

 
 i j k   
   4 1 
h4, 1, 0i × h3, −2, 0i =  4 1 0  =   k = h0, 0, −11i.
 3 −2 0  3 −2 
5. Find the√cumulative length function s(t) (starting from a = 1) of the parametric
curve hln t, 2t, 12 t2 i.

We have that the cumulative arc length function will be

Z t
 0 
s(t) = r (u) du.
a

We are told that a = 1 and we now compute the derivative. We have

1 √
 
0
r (t) = , 2, t .
t

Therefore
Z t  √ 
 1 
s(t) =  u , 2, u  du
 
1
s
Z t  2 √
2
1
2
= + 2 + u du
1 u
Z tr
1
= 2
+ 2 + u2 du
1 u
s 2
Z t 
1
= + u du
1 u
Z t 
1
= + u du
1 u
 t
1 2 
= ln u + u 
2 1
1 2 1
= ln t + t − .
2 2

(Frequently in this type of problem the functions will be chosen so that the
terms on the inside of the square root “miraculously” combine into a perfect
square. Of course this is because they have been rigged to do so and would
not happen by coincidence.)