Unit 2: Differential calculus and its applications - Subjective Questions
MTH165 — Mathematics For Engineers • Practice Questions with Detailed Answers
20 questions
State the product rule, quotient rule, and chain rule of differentiation. Hence differentiate .
General rules:
- Product rule: If , then .
- Quotient rule: If , then , where .
- Chain rule: If , then .
For , apply the product and chain rules:
Now,
and
Therefore,
For the parametric curve and , find and .
For a parametric curve,
Here,
Thus,
The second derivative is
Since
we obtain
Find and by implicit differentiation if .
Differentiate the equation with respect to :
Collecting the derivative terms gives
Hence,
Differentiate
once more:
Therefore,
so
where .
Explain logarithmic differentiation and use it to differentiate , where .
Logarithmic differentiation is useful when a variable occurs in both the base and exponent or when a function contains complicated products and quotients.
Take logarithms:
Differentiate implicitly:
Thus,
Substituting the original value of ,
Derive a formula for the th derivative of .
Let
The first derivative is
Using the definitions of and ,
Therefore,
Every differentiation multiplies the amplitude by and increases the phase by . Repeating the process times gives
Equivalently,
State Rolle's theorem and verify it for on the interval .
Rolle's theorem: If a function is continuous on , differentiable on , and satisfies , then there exists at least one such that .
For :
- It is a polynomial, so it is continuous on and differentiable on .
- .
- .
Thus, all the hypotheses are satisfied. Now,
Setting gives
Since , Rolle's theorem is verified, with
State Lagrange's mean value theorem and apply it to on to determine the corresponding value of .
Lagrange's mean value theorem: If is continuous on and differentiable on , then there exists at least one such that
The function is continuous on and differentiable on . Its average rate of change is
Also,
Hence,
Therefore,
Since , the required value is
State Cauchy's mean value theorem and distinguish it from Lagrange's mean value theorem.
Cauchy's mean value theorem: Let and be continuous on and differentiable on . If on , then there exists at least one such that
Equivalently,
Comparison:
- Cauchy's theorem involves two functions, and .
- Lagrange's theorem involves one function and states
- Lagrange's theorem is a special case of Cauchy's theorem obtained by taking .
- Both theorems require continuity on the closed interval and differentiability on the open interval.
- Cauchy's theorem is important in proving results such as L'Hospital's rule.
State Taylor's theorem with the Lagrange form of the remainder. Use it to expand about up to the cubic term.
Taylor's theorem: If has the required derivatives near , then
where the Lagrange remainder is
for some between and .
For about :
Therefore,
Since
the remainder is
where lies between and . Hence,
Write the Maclaurin series for , , , and . Hence expand up to terms of degree four.
The standard Maclaurin series are
To expand , multiply
Collecting terms through degree four gives
Thus,
The coefficient of is zero.
Define an indeterminate form. List the standard indeterminate forms and explain how they may be transformed for evaluation.
An indeterminate form is a symbolic form obtained during limit evaluation that does not uniquely determine the value of the limit.
The standard indeterminate forms are
Transformations:
- Forms and may be treated directly using algebraic simplification or L'Hospital's rule.
- A product of the form can be rewritten as
- A difference of the form can often be handled by combining fractions, rationalizing, or factoring.
- For exponential forms, set and take logarithms:
Evaluate the limit of first and then exponentiate to obtain the limit of .
State L'Hospital's rule and use it to evaluate: (i) , (ii) , and (iii) .
L'Hospital's rule: If has the form or and the required derivatives exist, then
provided the limit on the right exists.
(i) Applying the rule repeatedly,
(ii)
(iii) Let . Then
Using L'Hospital's rule,
Therefore,
Find and classify the local maxima and minima of .
Differentiate the function:
The stationary points satisfy , so
The second derivative is
At ,
so is a point of local maximum. Its value is
At ,
so is a point of local minimum. Its value is
Therefore:
- Local maximum: at .
- Local minimum: at .
An open box with a square base must have a volume of cubic units. Find the dimensions that minimize its surface area.
Let the side of the square base be and the height be .
The volume constraint is
so
The surface area of the open box is
Substituting for ,
Differentiate:
For a stationary point,
Thus,
The height is
Also,
for , confirming a minimum. Therefore, the required dimensions are
Derive the derivatives of and by implicit differentiation. Also state the derivatives of and .
Derivative of : Let
Differentiating,
Therefore,
Since ,
Derivative of : Let
Differentiating,
Hence,
Thus,
The other standard derivatives are
State Leibniz's theorem for the th derivative of a product and use it to find the th derivative of .
Leibniz's theorem: If and are sufficiently differentiable, then
Take
The nonzero derivatives of are
while every derivative of is . Therefore, only the terms for remain:
Since
we obtain
Use the Maclaurin series to approximate through the cubic term and give an upper bound for the truncation error.
The Maclaurin expansion is
valid for .
Set :
Thus,
This is an alternating series whose term magnitudes decrease. Therefore, the absolute error is no greater than the magnitude of the first omitted term:
Hence,
Find the equations of the tangent and normal to the parametric curve , at .
For the curve,
At ,
The coordinates of the point are
Tangent: Its slope is , so
Therefore,
Normal: Its slope is the negative reciprocal of , namely . Thus,
which simplifies to
For the implicitly defined circle , derive expressions for and .
Differentiate
with respect to :
Hence,
Differentiate again:
Using the quotient rule,
Substituting gives
Since ,
Explain the procedure for finding absolute extrema on a closed interval. Then find the absolute maximum and minimum of on .
Closed-interval procedure:
- Find all critical points in the open interval where or does not exist.
- Evaluate at every critical point.
- Evaluate at both endpoints.
- Compare all values; the largest is the absolute maximum and the smallest is the absolute minimum.
For
we have
Thus, the critical points in are and .
Evaluate the function:
Comparing these values:
- The absolute maximum is at .
- The absolute minimum is at both and .
State the product rule, quotient rule, and chain rule of differentiation. Hence differentiate .
General rules:
- Product rule: If , then .
- Quotient rule: If , then , where .
- Chain rule: If , then .
For , apply the product and chain rules:
Now,
and
Therefore,
Did this save you a night before the exam?
LPU Notes is free, and it stays free. Ads cover part of the server bill. The rest comes out of a student's own pocket: the domain, the storage, and keeping the site up through the weeks everyone needs it at once.
The payment button didn't load. An ad blocker or a filtered network is the usual reason. to try again.
Nothing here is ever locked, and nothing unlocks. Chip in only if it was worth it. What it pays for →