National Taiwan University, Fall 2023

Calculus 1 (Class 14)

Exercise sheet 1: concepts of limit, continuity and derivative

Exercise 1. Find the derivative of the function f (x) = 1=x for x ̸= 0. Then, for every
a ̸= 0, find the equation of the tangent line to the graph of y = f (x) at (a; f (a)).

Exercise 2. Show (by induction on n) that (1 + a)n ≥ 1 + na for every real number
a > −1 and every positive integer n. Use this result to show that lim a1=n = 1 for all
n→+∞
a > 0. [Hint: for the latter question, do the case of a ≥ 1 first.]

ex
Exercise 3. Show that lim = +∞ for every nonzero polynomial P (x) with
x→+∞ |P (x)|
“ x ”n
real coefficients. [Hint: for every x ≥ 0, recall that the sequence 1 + of n is
n
increasing and tends to e x as n → +∞.]

Exercise 4. For every continuous function f : [0; 1] −→ [0; 1], show that f (a) = a for
some a ∈ [0; 1]. If g : (0; 1) −→ (0; 1) is another continuous function, must we have
g (a) = a for some a ∈ (0; 1)? [Hint: for f , consider F (x) = f (x) − x and apply the
intermediate value theorem.]

Exercise 5. Justify the following (ancient) method for calculating the positive square
root of a positive number c: choose any a0 > 0 with a02 ≥ c, and calculate a1 ; a2 ; · · ·
recursively via „ «
1 c
an+1 = an + for all n ∈ Z≥0 ;
2 an
√
then an will tend to c as n tends to +∞.
√
Remark. This method for calculating c coincides with Newton’s method for approxi-
mating the positive root of the equation x 2 − c = 0.