Trial exam Mathematics for Business Engineers II – April 23 2021

Surname and first name: ..........................................................................................................................

You can participate voluntarily to this trial exam. The obtained result is not taken into account
for your final score for this course. You may hand in your solution; in that case your paper will
be corrected and you will obtain an indicative score.

Open questions (3 × 3.75 points = 11.25 points)

1. Calculate the extrema of the function
f : R3 → R : (x, y, z) 7→ x2 − 2x + y 2 + 4y + cos(z).

2. Let U1 and U2 be linear subspaces of a vector space V . Determine which of the fol-
lowing statements are true and which are false. Prove the true statements and give a
counterexample of the false statements.
(a) U1 ∪ U2 is a linear subspace of V .
(b) U1 ∪ U2 is not a linear subspace of V .
(c) If U1 ⊆ U2 or U2 ⊆ U1 , then U1 ∪ U2 is a linear subspace of V .
(d) If U1 ∪ U2 is a linear subspace of V , then U1 ⊆ U2 or U2 ⊆ U1 .
3. The colour of dragon flowers is determined by two genes which we denote by A and a. A
plant with genotype AA has red flowers, a plant with genotype Aa has pink flowers and
a plant with genotype aa has white flowers. A plant will pass on to its descendant one if
its two genes; we assume that both genes have the same probability to be passed on.
A florist has a large population of dragon flowers with red flowers (genotype AA), we call
these the plants of generation 0. The florist fertilizes every of these plants with pollen of
a plant with pink flowers (genotype Aa) from a different population. Every plant has one
new plant as descendant and we call these new plants the plants of generation 1. Because
the pollen that is used for the fertilization with probability one half contains the A-gen
and with probability one half the a-gen, while the plants of generation 1 already received
the A-gen from the plant of generation 0, half of the plants of generation 1 has red flowers
and the other half has pink flowers.
The florist repeats this process: the plants of a certain generation are fertilized with pollen
from a plant with pink flowers such that every plant has a new plant as descendant in
the next generation. Denote with xn , yn and zn respectively the fractions of plants with
red, pink and white flowers in generation n. That is, x0 = 1, y0 = 0, z0 = 0 an x1 = 12 ,
y1 = 12 , z1 = 0.
(a) Calculate x2 , y2 and z2 .
(b) Express xn+1 , yn+1 and zn+1 in terms of xn , yn and zn for n ∈ N.
(c) Calculate the limit of the sequences x, y and z. What is the meaning of these limits?
Multiple choice questions (3 × 1.25 points = 3.75 points)

1. Which of the following sequences (yn )n∈N satisfies y0 = 1 and

yn+2 − 2yn+1 + 2n+1 (n + 1) = 0?

(A) yn = A2n + 41 n2n with A ∈ R.

(B) yn = A2n + 41 n2n − 14 n2 2n with A ∈ R.
(C) yn = 2n + 14 n2n .
(D) yn = 2n + 14 n2n − 41 n2 2n .

2. Three variables X, Y and Z satisfy the relation XY Z 2 = Z 3 − 4X. At a certain moment

X and Y both are equal to 1. If X is increasing at that moment, while Y remains
constant, what can be said about the behaviour of Z at that moment?

(A) Z is decreasing.
(B) Z is constant.
(C) Z is increasing.
(D) It is not possible to conclude this based on the given information.

√
3. What is the maximum of the function f : R2 → R : (x, y) 7→ 4x + 2y + 5 subject to the
constraints y − x ≤ 1, y + x ≥ 1 and y − x2 ≥ 0?
√
(A) 2 + 5
√
(B) 1 + 2 5
√
(C) 5 + 4 5
√
(D) 4 + 5 5

Good luck!