MATH 100 Practice Exam 2

Duration: 2.5 hours

Rules governing UBC examinations:
1. Each candidate must be prepared to produce, upon request, a UBC card for identification.
2. No candidate shall be permitted to enter the examination room after the expiration of
one-half hour from the scheduled starting time, or to leave during the first half hour of
the examination.
3. Candidates suspected of any of the following, or similar, dishonest practices shall be
immediately dismissed from the examination and shall be liable to disciplinary action:

(a) Having at the place of writing any books, papers or memoranda, calculators, comput-
ers, sound or image players/recorders/transmitters (including telephones), or other
memory aid devices, other than those authorized by the examiners;
(b) Speaking or communicating with other candidates;
(c) Purposely exposing written papers to the view of other candidates or imaging devices.
The plea of accident or forgetfulness shall not be received.

4. Candidates must not destroy or mutilate any examination material; must hand in all
examination papers; and must not take any examination material from the examination
room without permission of the invigilator.
5. Candidates must follow any additional examination rules or directions communicated by
the instructor or invigilator.

Additional rules governing this examination:

1. This is a closed-book exam.

(a) Calculators and other calculating devices may not be used.

(b) Notes may not be used.
(c) Watches must be removed and taken off the table.

2. If an answer box is provided, you must write down your answer (but not its justification)
in the box.
 √ √
3. Answers must be simplified and calculator-ready. For example, write log e 2 = 2,
√
but do not write 2 ≈ 1.414.
4. You must justify your answers unless an explicit exception is made.
5. You may use any result proven in class or on assignments.

Student number: 2
1. [5 marks] Let
ax2
f (x) = ,
bx + cx3
where a, b and c are nonzero constants. Find the polynomials s(x) and l(x) such that
s(x) best approximates f (x) for small values of x, and l(x) best approximates f (x) for
large values of x.

Answer:

Student number: 3
2. [5 marks] Find all the values of c such that
 2
x + 2 if x ≤ c
f (x) =
4x − 1 if x > c

is continuous.

Answer:

Student number: 4
3. [5 marks] Let f (x) = 2x2 + 3x − 1. Use a definition of the derivative to find f ′ (0). No
credit will be given for solutions using differentiation rules, but you can use those to check
your answer.

Answer:

Student number: 5
4. [5 marks] Find the slope of the tangent line to the curve
√
x−7
y=√
x+7
at x = 9.

Answer:

Student number: 6
5. [5 marks] Find the slope of the tangent line to the curve y = xx at x = e2 .

Answer:

Student number: 7
6. [5 marks] Find the equation of the tangent line to the curve

2
x2 + y 2 = 2x2 + 2y 2 − x

at the point 0, − 21 . Your answer should be in the form y = mx + b.

Answer:

Student number: 8
7. [5 marks] Use the
degree 2 Taylor approximation to f (x) = cos(x) about x = 0 to
approximate cos 51 .

Answer:

Student number: 9
8. [5 marks] Find the x-value of the point on the curve y = 9 − 6x closest to the point
(2, 2).

Answer:

Student number: 10
 2
9. [5 marks] Let f (x) = e−x +2x . Find all local extrema, and indicate clearly if each is a
local maximum or a local minimum.

Answer:

Student number: 11
10. [5 marks] Let f (x) = x2 − 12x + 11 on the interval [0, 10]. Find the values a and b such
that f (x) attains its minimum at x = a and its maximum at x = b.

Answer:

Student number: 12
11. In Assignment 3 you considered the swish and softplus functions, differentiable approxi-
mations to the rectifier function used in neural networks. An approximation that improves
on these functions is the mish function
 2 log(1+ex ) 
e −1
f (x) = x 2 log(1+ex ) .
e +1

(a) [2 marks] Find the intercepts of f (x).

Answer:

(b) [3 marks] What polynomial best approximates f (x) for large negative values of x?

Answer:

Student number: 13
(c) [3 marks] What polynomial best approximates f (x) for large positive values of x?

Answer:

(d) [3 marks] The degree 4 Taylor polynomial of f (x) at x = 0 is

3 8 2 3 86 4
x + x2 − x − x.
5 25 125 1875
What is f ′′ (0)?

Answer:

Student number: 14
12. Fechner’s law describes the relationship between “stimulus intensity” x, such as the
brightness of a light in lumens, and “perceived intensity” p(x), such as the perceived
brightness of a light by a viewer. It is given by
x
p(x) = k log ,
m
where k and m are positive constants. The domain is restricted to x ≥ m.

(a) [3 marks] Find p′ (x), and state all intervals in the domain where p(x) is increasing.
(Answers should be written in the box. Justification should be outside the box.)

Answer:

(b) [3 marks] Find p′′ (x), and state all intervals in the domain where p(x) is concave
up. (Answers should be written in the box. Justification should be outside the box.)

Answer:

Student number: 15
(c) [3 marks] Draw a large sketch of the graph of p(x) on the axes below, clearly
labelling any intercepts, asymptotes, extrema and inflection points.

(d) [3 marks] At a given stimulus intensity x, the discrimination threshold is the mini-
mum increase in stimulus intensity such that the corresponding increase in perceived
intensity is equal to or greater than a constant ∆p. According to this model, are
discrimination thresholds at high stimulus intensities greater than discrimination
thresholds at low stimulus intensities? Give your answer and justify it in a few
sentences.

Student number: 16
(e) [2 marks] Stevens’ power law is sometimes taken by psychophysicists (who study
stimuli and perceptions) to supersede Fechner’s law. It proposes that perceived
intensity ψ(x) is related to stimulus intensity x according to

ψ(x) = kxa ,

where a is a parameter that depends on the type of stimulus, and k is the same
positive constant as in Fechner’s law. If p(x) and ψ(x) are meant to describe the
same relationship, in which of the following intervals is the parameter a? Remember
to justify your answer.
A. (−∞, −1)
B. (−1, 0)
C. (0, 1)
D. (1, ∞)

Answer:

Student number: 17
13. Suppose you have 10 m of wire that must be used to form a rectangle and an isosceles
triangle, both of which already have bases of length 2 m, as shown below. The wire must
be used to add three sides to the rectangle and two sides to the triangle.

(a) [4 marks] Find the algebraic expression for A(x), the area enclosed by both shapes,
as a function of the leg length x of the triangle.

Answer:

Student number: 18
(b) [2 marks] What is the domain of A(x)? You may state your answer without explicit
justification.

Answer:

(c) [5 marks] Find the leg length x that maximizes the area A(x) enclosed by both
shapes.

Answer:

Student number: 19
14. The differential equation  
dP P
= rP 1− − hP,
dt K
where r > h and K are positive constants, describes the growth rate of a population P
over time t. (A simplified version was examined in Week 6 and Week 8 small classes.)

(a) [4 marks] Find the steady states and indicate them clearly on the phase line below,
along with arrows indicating the sign of dP
dt
between steady states.

(b) [1 mark] Given an initial population P (0) = 1.5K, does the model predict that the
population will increase or decrease?

Answer:

(c) [1 mark] Given a very small positive initial population P (0), what will the popu-
lation be at the moment it is changing most rapidly? Your answer may include the
terms r, h and K.

Answer:

Student number: 20
(d) [4 marks] Draw the slope field for the differential equation on the axes below. On
the slope field, draw at least four solutions.

(e) [2 marks] The term −hP in the differential equation represents variable harvest, in
which the population is “harvested” at a rate proportional to the present popula-
tion. In a few sentences, describe carefully what the model predicts will happen to
populations if the parameter h is larger than r.

(f) [2 marks] Suppose h = 0. In a few sentences, speculate what K represents in terms

of population.

Student number: 21
For examiners’ use only

Section 1
Question 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total
Points 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 50
Score

Section 2
Question 11 12 13 14 Total
Points 11 14 11 14 50
Score

Overall exam score

Student number: 22