No Calculator

Mathematics I Exam Style Questions

1. Consider the following function:

f (x) = 14x3 − 87x2 + 79x + 30

(a) Given that f (5) = 0, state the factor theorem with the associated factor of f (x) this fact leads to.

(b) Using polynomial long division and a clearly described method of factorisation as part of your
method, find all the real roots of f (x) = 0.

Page 2 of 16 Turn Over

 No Calculator

2. Consider the following function:

g(x) = x2 − 7x + 10
(a) Using a table, solve g(x) < 0.
√
(b) Hence, explaining your reasoning clearly, state the domain and range of h(x) = x2 − 7x + 10.

Page 3 of 16 Turn Over

 No Calculator

3. (a) Using Pascal’s triangle, expand and simplify (1 + 2x2 )5 .

(b) Using the binomial theorem, calculate the coefficient of the x12 term in x4 (1 + x)10

Page 4 of 16 Turn Over

 No Calculator

4. (a) A sequence, xn , is given by:  

11 5
xn = 7, , 4, , 1, · · ·
2 2
i. Explain how you know xn is an arithmetic sequence.

ii. Hence calculate S15 for this sequence.

(b) Another sequence, un , which is geometric, is given by:

un = {20, 18, 16.2, 14.58, · · · }

i. Calculate S∞ for un .

Page 5 of 16 Turn Over

 No Calculator

5. Consider the following diagram where d1 and d2 are the arc lengths of circle sectors with different radii,
r1 and r2 respectively, that both subtend an angle θ:

0.4cm d2

d1

θ r2
r1

4π d1 3
Given that the area of the shaded region is equal to cm2 , and = , calculate the exact value of θ.
75 d2 5

Page 6 of 16 Turn Over

 No Calculator

6. Consider the standard triangle with side lengths, a, b, and c and respective opposite angles α, β, and γ.
π
If a = 7 cm, c = 8 cm and α = . Show that the triangle can have two possible areas with the exact
3
values: √
A1 = 6 3 cm2
√
A2 = 10 3 cm2

Page 7 of 16 Turn Over

 No Calculator

7. (a) Factorise f (x) = 2x2 + x − 3 to write it in the form f (x) = (ax + b)(x + c) where a, b, and c are
integers.

(b) Hence solve f (x) = 0 and use a grid/table to solve f (x) ≤ 0.

(c) Complete the square of g(x) = f (x) − 1 to show:

 2
1 33
g(x) = 2 x + −
4 8

(d) State whether g(x) has a minimum or a maximum, explain why, and find its coordinates.

(e) Using the answer to part (c), show that the solutions of g(x) = 0 are:
√
−1 ± 33
x=
4

(f) Given that g(x) = f (x)−1 and your answers to part (b) and (e), explain, without using a grid/table
of g(x), why the solutions of g(x) > 0 are:
√ √
−1 − 33 −1 + 33
x< or x>
4 4

(g) Hence explain why the domain of h(x) is:

√ √
−1 − 33 −1 + 33
x< or x>
4 4

Where
1
h(x) = √
2x2 +x−4
(h) Explain why the range of h(x) is 0 < h(x) < ∞.

Page 8 of 16 Turn Over

 No Calculator

8. (a) The following sequence of numbers is part of the nth row in Pascal’s triangle:

21, 35, 35, 21

Given that the first three rows are:

n = 0: 1
n = 1: 1 1
n = 2: 1 2 1
By generating Pascal’s triangle, determine the value of n corresponding to the above sequence and
show how the elements in row n are related to those in row n − 1.

(b) The first four terms in the binomial expansion of

(2 + 3x2 )8

are:
28 (1 + 12x2 + 63x4 + 189x6 + . . .)
i. Use Pascal’s triangle to show that the first four terms of the expansion are those shown above.

ii. Show that the binomial theorem gives the same result.

(c) Use the binomial theorem to determine the coefficient of x19 in

(1 + x3 )4 (2 − x2 )5

Page 9 of 16 Turn Over

 No Calculator

9. In this question, we are going to investigate some of the properties of fractal curves. A fractal curve
looks the same, no matter how far you zoom in on it. We are going to investigate one of these.

The basic pattern can be seen below in figure 1. Starting with a line of length L1 , we split it into
three equal lengths, remove the middle line, and replace it with two more lines of length L2 = L1 /3 such
that all the lines are the same length. The “triangle” that forms is equilateral.

L2
L1 L2 = L1 /3

(a) Line before being iterated (b) Line after being iterated (c) Line after being iterated again

Figure 1: Iterations of the basic pattern.

To generate the shape we are interested in, start with an equilateral triangle of side lengths L1 . Along
each length, generate a new triangle such that each side length of the entire shape is the same (each
new length is 1/3 of the previous iteration). This follows the basic pattern already described. Repeat
this process infinitely many times. This can be thought of as a sequence of shapes as shown in figure 2
below.

(a) First Shape (b) Second Shape (c) Third Shape (d) Fourth Shape (e) Fifth Shape

Figure 2: Iterations of the fractal. The fractal is generated after infinitely many iterations.

(a) Given that the area of the first shape is equal to A1 , show that the area of each of the three smaller
triangles in the second shape is A1 /9.

(b) Hence show that the area of the second shape can be expressed as:
4
A2 = A1
3

(c) Show that the area of the third shape can be expressed as:
 
1 4
A3 = A1 + A1 +
3 27

(d) Given that the area of the fourth shape can be expressed as:
 
1 4 16
A4 = A1 + A1 + +
3 27 243

Page 10 of 16 Turn Over

 No Calculator

Explain why the series in the bracket is geometric and state the common ratio.

(e) Show that the area of the nth shape in the sequence, where (n > 1), can be expressed as:
 n−1 !
8 3 4
An = A1 −
5 5 9

(f) Calculate the area of the the shape after infinite steps, A∞ , and write it as a simplified expression
in terms of A1 .

Page 11 of 16 Turn Over

 No Calculator

10. (a) The sum of an arithmetic series with first term a = 5 and common difference d = 0.5 is equal to
82.5. Calculate the number terms in this summation.

(b) i. Stating the rules you use, show that:

r q
√
2 2 2 2 = 215/8

ii. Now consider a similar expression:

s r
√
3
q
3 3 3
4 4 4 4 4...

Explain why this can be written as 4Sn where Sn represents the sum of a geometric series. You
should state the common ratio for this series.

iii. If the expression in part (ii) is continued infinitely, show that the expression simplifies to:
s r
√
3
q
3 3 3
8 = 4 4 4 4 4...

Page 12 of 16 Turn Over

 No Calculator

11. (a) Consider the polynomial division, where a is a constant:

(x − a)2
(x − 1)

i. Use polynomial long division to find an expression for the remainder of this division.

ii. Explain why the remainder of the polynomial must always be positive.

iii. If the remainder of the division is 16, find the possible values for a.

(b) Consider the polynomial multiplication, where b is a constant:

(x + b)5 (x − b)5

i. Calculate the coefficient of the x8 term in the expansion of the brackets.

ii. State whether there are any odd powers of x in the expansion of the brackets. You should
support your answer with a calculation.

Page 13 of 16 Turn Over

 No Calculator

12. Consider the following shape. Each shaded area is the segment of a circle centered at the opposite point
to it on the unshaded triangle:

3cm

3cm 3cm

(a) Explain why the unshaded triangle is equilateral and state the exact value of each angle in the
triangle in radians.

(b) Calculate the area, A, of the unshaded triangle using:

base × height
i. Pythagoras’ Theorem and A =
2
ii. A formula that contains a trigonometric function

9 √

(c) Hence, or otherwise, show the exact area of the shaded region is equal to 2π − 3 3
4

Page 14 of 16 Turn Over

 No Calculator

13. Consider the general triangle below:

A
b

C
c

√ π
(a) If a = 2 cm, c = 2 cm, and A = , find the value of C.
4

π
(b) If instead, a = 2 cm, c = 1 cm, and B = , find the value of b.
3
π
(c) If instead, a = (x − 2) cm, b = (x + 2) cm, c = 5 cm, and B = , find the exact value of x.
3

Page 15 of 16 Turn Over

 No Calculator

14. (a) For the following summation series, identify the type of progression and evaluate:
4 8
+ 2 + + · · · + 16
3 3

(b) For the following summation series, identify the type of progression and evaluate:

768 + 384 + 192 + · · · + 3

(c) For an arithmetic sequence with first term, a = −4, where the sum of the first twenty terms,
S21 = 0, find the common difference.

(d) If the sum of the first three terms of a geometric sequence, S3 , has the following relationship with
its infinite sum, S∞ :
64S3 = 37S∞
Find the common ratio.

Page 16 of 16 Turn Over

 No Calculator

15. Consider the polynomial p(x), where:

p(x) = 3x3 + 11x2 − 24x + 10

(a) State the domain and range of p(x).

(b) Given that (x − 1) is a factor of p(x), use the factor theorem to show that x = 1 is a root of p(x).

(c) Using the method of polynomial long division, show that:

3x3 + 11x2 − 24x + 10

= 3x2 + 14x − 10
x−1

(d) Hence, using the method of completing the square, find all the solutions to p(x) = 0.

(e) Using a table/grid, solve p(x) > 0.

Page 17 of 16 End of Questions