Solutions for Engineering Mathematics 1 (MA11E01) —

Tutorial session 1
Problem 1 Compute the Domain of the following functions:
√
1. f (x) = 1/ x − 5
x+1
2. f (x) =
x3 + x2 + 2x
p
π (t + 7)2
3. f (t) =
(t − 3)(t − 1)
√
π h2 − 2h + 1
4. g(h) = √
h− π
√
5. h(x) = eπ log(tan2 (3 arcsin(0.5)))/ 3 − x

Solution 1

1. The fraction is defined whenever the numerator and the denominator √ are defined and the
denominator
√ is not 0. Thus f (x) is defined for all x such that x − 5 is defined and nonzero.
x − 5 is defined for if x − 5 ≥ 0, that is x ≥ 5. It is zero if x − 5 = 0, that is x = 5. Thus
we obtain that f (x) is defined for all x such that x > 0 which we can write as

x ∈ (5, ∞)

2. f (x) is defined for all x except where the denominator is zero. That is where x3 + x2 + 2x = 0,
we solve this as

x3 + x2 + 2x = 0
x(x2 + x + 2) = 0.

Thus we have one solution for x = 0, and potentially more by solving

x2 + x + 2 = 0.

Since the discriminant of this quadratic formula is 1 − 4 · 2 < 0 there are no solutions. Thus
f (x) is defined for all x except x = 0, or

R \ {0} = (−∞, 0) ∪ (0, ∞)

3. The argument of the square root is (t+7)2 ≥ 0, so this can never be negative. The denominator
can vanish at t = 1 or t = 3. So the domain of f (t) is given by the values of t such that

t ∈ R \ {1, 3} .

or
t ∈ (−∞, 1) ∪ (1, 3) ∪ (3, ∞) .

1
 4. The argument of the square root is h2 − 2h + 1 = (h − 1)2 ≥ 0, so this can never be negative.
√ √
The denominator h − π vanish at h = π. So the domain of g(h) is given by the values of
h such that √
t ∈ R \ { π} .
or √ √
t ∈ (−∞, π) ∪ ( π, ∞) .

5. The numerator is just a (scary) number. Therefore the function can take any real number as
input except x = 3 (would produce a division by zero), or any number larger than 3 (would
produce the square root of a negative number). So the domain of f (x) is given by the values
of x such that
x ∈ (−∞, 3)

Problem 2 Let f (x) = x2 . Find the equation of the secant lines

1. from x = 4 to x = 4 + h,

2. from x = 4 − h to x = 4,

3. from x = 4 − h to x = 4 + h,

to the graph y = f (x) = x2 , where h is a parameter (that we think of as being small). From these
results guess the equation for the tangent line at x = 4.

Solution 2

• We find the line through the two points (4, 16) and (4 + h, (4 + h)2 ). It is given by

(4 + h)2 − 16
y − 16 = (x − 4),
h
which simplifies as

y − 16 = (h + 8)(x − 4)
y = (h + 8)x + (−4h − 16)

• We find the line through the two points (4 − h, (4 − h)2 ) and (4, 16). It is given by

(4 − h)2 − 16
y − 16 = (x − 4),
−h
which simplifies as

y − 16 = (−h + 8)(x − 4)
y = (−h + 8)x + (4h − 16)

2
 • We find the line through the two points (4 − h, (4 − h)2 ) and (4 + h, (4 + h)2 ). It is given by

(4 + h)2 − (4 − h)2
y − (4 + h)2 = (x − (4 + h)),
2h
which simplifies as

y − (4 + h)2 = 8(x − (4 + h))

y = 8x + (4 + h)2 − 8(4 + h)
y = 8x + h2 − 16.

In the symmetric version, we see that the slope is 8 and does not depend on h. Thus for the slope
we do not need to do any limit. Thus the tangent line is the line with slope 8 going through (4, 16),
which is
y = 8x − 16.
This can also be obtained from any of the other secant lines by setting h = 0.

Problem 3 The following shows the graph of f (x).

y
6

x
−4 −2 2 4

Read off the following limits.

1. limx→−1 f (x)

2. limx→2 f (x)

3. limx→2− f (x)

4. limx→2+ f (x)

5. limx→∞ f (x)

6. limx→−∞ f (x)

Solution 3

1. limx→−1 f (x) = 0

3
 2. limx→2 f (x) does not exist.

3. limx→2− f (x) = 2

4. limx→2+ f (x) = ∞

5. limx→∞ f (x) = 1 (not entirely clear from the picture)

6. limx→−∞ f (x) = ∞

Problem 4 Show that limx→2 (8x − 1) = 15 directly using the definition of lim.

Solution 4 Let  > 0 be given. We then set δ = 8 . If 0 < |x − 2| < δ = 

8 we have

|8x − 1 − 15| = |8x − 16| = 8|x − 2| < 8δ = 8 = .
8