Assignment 2: for discussion in Week

3 tutorials
Assignment numbers are the ones as provided in the lecture notes.
d
Exercise 2.3.5 Suppose that a = a1 i+a2 j+a3 k. Show that dt
a = 0.
Exercise 2.5.4 Compute the following derivatives.
(1) Differentiate r(t) = (cos t)(ti + 5j) with respect to t.
(2) Differentiate r(t) = 3t2 a + cos tb with respect to t given that a
and b are constant vectors.

Exercise 2.5.9 Find f 0 (t) for each of the following functions.

(1) f (t) = (i + tj) · (3ti + 4j)
(2) f (t) = (a + tb) · (c + tb) given that a, b and c are constant
vectors.

Exercise 2.5.10 Suppose that the vectors a and b are perpendicular

and of equal length. Show that
d 1
[(a + tb) · (ta + tb)] = 0 when t = − .
dt 2
π
Exercise 2.5.11 Find the time t with 0 < t < 2
at which the the
length of the vector
√
r(t) = 2 sin ti + cos 2tj
is a minimum.
Exercise 2.5.15 Find r0 (0) for the following functions.
(1) r(t) = (3ti + 2t2 j + k) × (4t3 i + j + tk).
(2) r(t) = et a × (a + tb) where a and b are constant vectors.

Exercise 2.5.16 Show that d

dt
(r(t) × r0 (t)) = r(t) × r00 (t).