MATH 104 Small Class #1 Week of September 13, 2021

1. Precalc rapid fire quiz.

(a) The equation y = 2(x − 3) + 5 corresponds to:
The line of slope 3 going through the point (1, 5),
The line of slope 2 going through the point (3, 5),
The line of slope 5 going through the point (1, 3),
The line having x-intercept 0.5 and y-intercept −1,
The line having x-intercept −1 and y-intercept 2,
A parabola,
A sandwich of multiplier 3, residue 2, cohomologically equivalent to Z/5Z.
(b) The lines y = m1 x + b1 and y = m2 x + b2 are parallel if:
m1 = m2 m1 m2 = −1 m1 m2 = 1 b1 = −b2 m1 b2 − b1 m2 = 0
What about perpendicular ?
(c) The maximum of −2x2 + 12x + 10 is attained for:
x = 3,
√
x = 3 ± 14,
x = 0,
x = 28,
x in the middle of the two x-intercepts.
Can you recall how to determine if quadratic has a maximum/minimum? What’s the
quadratic formula?
(d) Which of the following assertion is true?
ln(x + y) = ln(x) + ln(y) exy = ex ey 2x + 2x = 2x+1 f −1 (x) = 1
f (x)

2. A love story, part 1.

It’s a cold morning of September, the left-limit L and the right limit R have agreed to meet
for a date at x = a. As fate would have it, they both took a different path to the rendez-vous
point; both are following the graph of y = f (x) but L arrived from the left and R from the
right.

lim f (x)
x→a+

L f (a)

lim f (x)
x→a−

(a) What does f (x) NEED to satisfy in order for the couple to be able to meet?

• lim f (x) exists.

x→a

• f (x) is continuous at x = a.
 • lim− f (x) exists.
x→a

• lim+ f (x) exists.

x→a

• f (a) exists.
• f (x) is differentiable at x = a.
• lim− f (x) = lim+ f (x).
x→a x→a

(b) On the drawing below, determine one-sided limits at x = 1, 2, 3 and specify where the
limit exists.
5

−1 1 2 3 4 5

3. Sketch the graph of a function with the given properties. You do not need to find a formula
for the function.

g(1) = 0, g(2) = 1, g(3) = −2, lim g(x) = 0,

x→2
lim g(x) = −1, lim g(x) = −2.
x→3− x→3+

4. Piecewise-defined functions. For each of the following functions, compute lim− f (x),
x→a
lim+ f (x), and state whether limx→a f (x) exists.
x→a


 
 15(x + 1)2 x<1
ex x<0 351 x=1

(a) f (x) = , a = 0; (b) f (x) = , a = 1;
3x + 1 x ≥ 0 
 x2 + 58x + 1 1 < x < 2
sin(x + cos(x)) x>2


x2 x≤2
(c) f (x) = , a = 2.
3x + 1 x > 2

5. Evaluate the limits

1
x2 − 2x − 3 x2 − 16 5+h
− 51
lim , lim , and lim .
x→3 x−3 x→4 4 − x h→0 h

6. Limit laws.
 • Assume that lim xf (x) = 12. Show that lim f (x) exists and compute it.
x→3 x→3

f (x)
• Same question, assuming that lim = 5.
x→3 x
x
• (Harder) Assume that L(a) = limx→0 a x−1 exists for all a > 0. If a, b > 0, show that
L(ab) = L(a) + L(b). In other words, L “behaves like a logarithm”. We will see later that
it is equal to ln(a).

Hint. Use ax bx − 1 = ax bx − ax + ax − 1.
√
x+ x−6
7. Compute lim .
x→4 x−4