Calculus I

Lesson 6: Tangents,Velocities, Rates of change

Review and more applications
(Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Chanh Tu, DUT)

1. Velocities
Velocity
You go from Quang Tri to Danang by motorbike. At your motobike at Hue, the
milestone shows and you reach Danang at , the milestone shows
.
1. What is your average velocity from ? How to compute the average
velocity from to if your function of moving is
2. At Hue, your speedometer shows per hour. What does it mean?
How to compute that ?
sol

Definition
We define the velocity (or instantaneous velocity) at time to be the limit of these
average velocities:

>

Exam
Suppose that a ball is dropped from the upper observation deck of the Trump Tower, above
the ground with the equation of motion .
(a) What is the velocity of the ball after seconds?
(b) How fast is the ball traveling when it hits the ground?
sol
 Compute the velocity at That is

(a) When then (m/s)

(b) When the ball hits the ground, then Then

Then (m/s)

>

2. Tangents
Problem
Slope of the secant line , where , defined by

If as then the line through with slope is called the tangent line

>
>

Definition
>

Exam 1
Find an equation of the tangent line to the curve defined by at

sol

>
 >

>

>
>

Exam 2
Find an equation of the tangent line to the curve defined by at
>

3. Rates of change
Let be a function. If changes from to , then the change in (also called the increment of
) is

and the corresponding change in is

.

3.1. Average rate of change (average velocity)

The difference quotient

is called the average rate of change of with respect to over the interval
It can be interpreted as the slope of the secant line in the figure.
3.2. (Instantaneous) rate of change (current velocity)

>

Exam (read at home)

sol

a) (t/h)

>
1.300000000 (3.3.1.1)
>
b) Use
>
>
 >

>

Homework
PFIEV2
I. 1-6;
II. 4-6 al. 2; 7-10 al 2; 11-21 al. 4;
III. 22-28 al. 5;