THE CHINESE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG

Department of Mathematics
MATH1510 Calculus for Engineers (Fall 2022)
Suggested solutions of midterm examination

Do not distribute without the authors’ permission.

Short Questions
Each of question 1-15 is worth 3 points.

1. Suppose √
f (x) = x and g(x) = x2 − 3x − 10.
Find the domain of f ◦ g. Express your answer using interval notation.

Answer: (−∞, −2] ∪ [5, ∞)

dy
2. Find if
dx
√ 2
y= x+ + 3x , where x > 0
x2

dy 1 4
Answer: = √ − 3 + 3x ln 3
dx 2 x x

dy
3. Find if
dx
2 cos x + ln x
y= √ , where x > 0
x+1

√
dy (−2 sin x + x1 ) x + 1 − (2 cos x + ln x) 2√x+1
1
Answer: =
dx x+1

dy
4. Find if
dx
(tan x)(arctan x)  π π
y= , where x ∈ − ,
ex + 1 2 2

!
2 1 x
dy sec x e
x2 +1 (tan x)(arctan x)
= + − x
dx tan x arctan x e + 1 ex + 1
Answer:
(ex + 1)[(sec2 x)(arctan x) + (tan x)( x21+1 )] − ex (tan x)(arctan x)
=
(ex + 1)2
 2

dy
5. Find if
dx  π
y = cos(log2 (sin x + sec x)), where x ∈ 0,
2

dy 1 cos x + sec x tan x

Answer: = − sin(log2 (sin x + sec x)) · ·
dx ln 2 sin x + sec x

6. Which of the following functions have a maximum on the specified intervals? If

none of them has a maximum, write NONE.

(a) f (x) = x on [0, ∞).

(b) g(x) = x3 sin x on [2, 3].
(c) h(x) = |x| on [−1, 1).

Answer: (b) and (c)

7. Find the value(s) of a so that f (x) defined below is continuous on R.

(
ax − 1 if x ≥ 1;
f (x) =
x2 if x < 1

Answer: a=2

8. Suppose

f (4) = 8, f (5) = 4, f (8) = 4

g(4) = 5, g(5) = 8, g(8) = 5
f 0 (4) = 5, f 0 (5) = 10, f 0 (8) = 7
g 0 (4) = 0, g 0 (5) = −3, g 0 (8) = 9
 0
0 g
Find (f + g) (4), (8) and (f ◦ g)0 (5)
f

 0
0 g 1
Answer: (f + g) (4) = 5, (8) = , (f ◦ g)0 (5) = −21
f 16
 3

π 
(1020)
9. Let f (x) = sin 2x. Find f .
6

√
π  3 √
Answer: f (1020)
=2 1020
· = 21019 3
6 2

10. Let f (x) = (x2 − 3x + 1)ex . Find f (100) (x).

Answer: (x2 − 3x + 1)ex + 100(2x − 3)ex + 4950(2)ex = (x2 + 197x + 9601)ex

11. Let
C : x3 + 5xy 2 − 4y 3 = 2
be a curve. Find the equation of the tangent of C at the point (1, 1).

Answer: y − 1 = 4(x − 1)

For question 12 - 14, evaluate the given limit. Furthermore, if the limit does not
exist but diverges to ±∞, please indicate so and determine the correct sign.

12.
ax + b cos(x)
lim , where a, b > 0
x→∞ 3 − 2x

a
Answer: −
2

13.
ax − (ln a)x − 1
lim , where a > 1
x→0 x2

(ln a)2
Answer:
2
 4

14.
1
lim (1 + sin ax) x , where a > 0
x→0

Answer: ea

15. Air flows out from a spherical balloon at a rate of 12 cm3 /s. What is the rate of
change of the circumference when the radius of the balloon is 5 cm.

6
Answer: − cm/s.
25

Long Questions
16. (3 points) Let

γ(t) = (x(t), y(t)) = (t2 + 1, t − 3), where t ∈ R

be a curve. Sketch the curve in the xy-plane. Indicate the direction of motion when
t increases.
Solution

y =t−3 =⇒ t=y+3 =⇒ x = t2 + 1 = (y + 3)2 + 1.

 5

17. (8 points) Without using L’Hôpital’s rule, evaluate the following limits. Further-
more, if the limit does not exist but diverges to ±∞, please indicate so and determine
the correct sign.
1


ln 1 + 2x
(a) lim
x→∞ ln 1 + 1


5x
cos 8x − cos 4x
(b) lim
x→0 cos 6x − cos 2x

Solution:

(a)
1 1



ln 1 + 2x

(2x) ln 1 + 2x 5
lim 1
= lim 1

·
x→∞ ln 1 +
5x
x→∞ (5x) ln 1 +
5x
2
1 2x


ln 1 + 2x 5
= lim
5x ·
x→∞ ln 1 + 1 2
5x
1 5
= ·
1 2
5
= .
2

(b)
cos 8x − cos 4x −2 sin 6x sin 2x
lim = lim
x→0 cos 6x − cos 2x x→0 −2 sin 4x sin 2x
sin 6x 4x 6
= lim · ·
x→0 6x sin 4x 4
6
=1·1·
4
3
= .
2
 6

18. (8 points) Let a, b ∈ R be constants such that 0 < b < π. Suppose

(x
+ a if x ≤ b;
f (x) = 2
sin x if x > b.

Given that f (x) is differentiable over R, without using L’Hôpital’s rule, find the
values of a and b.
Solution: Since f is differentiable over R, f is continuous at b. In particular,

lim f (x) = f (b)

x→b+
b
lim+ sin x = +a
x→b 2
b
sin b = + a.
2
Note that
f (b + h) − f (b)
Lf 0 (b) = lim−
h→0 h
b+h
( + a) − ( 2b + a)
= lim− 2
h→0 h
1
= lim−
h→0 2
1
= ,
2
and
f (b + h) − f (b)
Rf 0 (b) = lim+
h→0 h
sin(b + h) − sin b
= lim+
h→0 h
2 cos(b + h2 ) sin h2
= lim+
h→0 h
h sin h
= lim+ cos(b + ) · h 2
h→0 2 2
= cos b.

Since f is differentiable at b, we have

1
= Lf 0 (b) = Rf 0 (b) = cos b.
2
π
So b = because 0 < b < π.
3
√
π π 3 π π
Therefore, a = sin − = − and b = .
3 6 2 6 3
 7

19. (8 points) Let C be the curve defined by the equation

y 4 − xy = ex + ln y

Given that A = (0, 1) is a point on C,

dy
(a) Find
dx A
2
dy
(b) Find
dx2 A

Solution:

(a) Differentiate the equation with respect to x, we have

d d x
y 4 − xy =


(e + ln y)
dx dx
dy dy 1 dy
4y 3 −y−x = ex +
dx dx y dx
 
1 dy
4y 3 − x − = ex + y. (∗)
y dx

At A = (0, 1), we have

 
3 1 dy
4(1) − 0 − = e0 + 1
1 dx A
dy 2
= .
dx A 3

(b) Differentiate (∗) with respect to x, we have

1 d2 y
   
2 dy 1 dy dy 3 dy
12y −1+ 2 + 4y − x − 2
= ex + .
dx y dx dx y dx dx

At A = (0, 1), we have

1 d2 y
   
2 2 1 2 2 3 2
12(1) · − 1 + 2 · + 4(1) − 0 − = e0 +
3 1 3 3 1 dx2 A 3
d2 y 31
=− .
dx2 A 27
 8

20. (8 points)

In the above figure, a ladder with length of 5 m leans against a wall. The point of
contact A between the ladder and the wall slides down at a constant speed of 0.8
m/s. When A is 4.8 m above the ground,

(a) find the sliding speed of B away from the wall

(b) find the rate of change of θ (in degree/s, correct to 2 decimal places)

Solution:

(a) Let x m be the height of A above the ground, and y m be the distance of B
√ dx
from the wall. Then y = 52 − x2 and = −0.8. Hence,
dt
dy −2x dx
= √ · .
dt 2 52 − x2 dt
When x = 4.8,
dy −(4.8) 96
=√ · (−0.8) = .
dt 52 − 4.82 35
96
Therefore, B is sliding away from the wall at a speed of m/s, when A is 4.8
35
m above the ground.
(b) Note that
x = 5 sin θ.
Differentiate both sides with respect to t, we have
dx dθ √ 2 dθ
= 5 cos θ · = 5 − 4.82 · .
dt dt dt
When x = 4.8, we have
dθ −0.8 4
=√ =− .
dt 2
5 − 4.82 7
Therefore, when A is 4.8 m above the ground, the rate of change of θ is
4 180◦
− · ≈ −32.74◦ /s.
7 π
 9

21. (8 points) Suppose f, g : [0, 1] → R are two continuous functions such that

• f (0) = f (1) = 0
• g(0) = g(1) = 1
• f (c) = g(c) + 1 for some c ∈ (0, 1)

Show that the graphs of f, g must intersect at least twice.

Solution: Let h(x) = f (x) − g(x). Then h is a continuous function on [0, 1]
satisfying

h(0) = f (0) − g(0) = 0 − 1 = −1 < 0,

h(c) = f (c) − g(c) = 1 > 0,
h(1) = f (1) − g(1) = 0 − 1 = −1 < 0.

By Intermediate Value Theorem, there exists c1 ∈ (0, c) such that h(c1 ) = 0; and
there exists c2 ∈ (c, 1) such that h(c2 ) = 0.
Now, 0 < c1 < c2 < 1 and that f (c1 ) = g(c1 ), f (c2 ) = g(c2 ).
Therefore, f and g intersect at least twice.
 10

22. (12 points)

f 0 (x)
(a) Let f : R → (0, ∞) be a differentiable function such that ≤ 1 for all
f (x)
x ∈ R. Show that
f (b)
≤ eb−a
f (a)
for all a < b.
(b) By part (a) and by considering the function
f (x) = 1 + x2 ,
show that  n
1 1
1+ + 2 ≤e
n 2n
for all positive integers n.
Solution:
f 0 (x)
(a) Let g(x) = ln(f (x)). Then g is differentiable over R with g 0 (x) = for all
f (x)
x ∈ R. By Lagrange Mean Value Theorem,
g(b) − g(a)
= g 0 (c) for some c ∈ (a, b).
b−a
Hence,
ln(f (b)) − ln(f (a)) f 0 (c)
= ≤1
b−a f (c)
f (b)
ln ≤b−a
f (a)
f (b)
≤ eb−a .
f (a)
(b) Note that f (x) = 1 + x2 is positive and differentiable over R with
f 0 (x) 2x
= .
f (x) 1 + x2
For all x ∈ R,
f 0 (x) 2x
(1 − x)2 ≥ 0 =⇒ 1 − 2x + x2 ≥ 0 =⇒ = ≤ 1.
f (x) 1 + x2
For any positive integer n, take a = 1 and b = 1 + n1 .
By part (a),
1 + (1 + n1 )2 1

2
≤ en
1+1
1 1 1
1 + + 2 ≤ en
 n 2n n
1 1
1+ + 2 ≤ e.
n 2n