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Tutorial 12

The document contains a tutorial with various mathematical problems, including finding the minimum area of a triangle formed by a line and axes, optimizing a route across a circular lake, minimizing cable-laying costs across a river, maximizing the strength of a wooden beam, analyzing the zeros of a polynomial function, solving an equation involving an exponential function, and deriving a polynomial from a chemical equation. Each problem requires applying mathematical concepts such as calculus, optimization, and numerical methods. The tutorial is structured with specific tasks and questions to guide the problem-solving process.

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6 views3 pages

Tutorial 12

The document contains a tutorial with various mathematical problems, including finding the minimum area of a triangle formed by a line and axes, optimizing a route across a circular lake, minimizing cable-laying costs across a river, maximizing the strength of a wooden beam, analyzing the zeros of a polynomial function, solving an equation involving an exponential function, and deriving a polynomial from a chemical equation. Each problem requires applying mathematical concepts such as calculus, optimization, and numerical methods. The tutorial is structured with specific tasks and questions to guide the problem-solving process.

Uploaded by

usermpsk
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

MAM1020F Tutorial 12 10-11 May 2022

1. A straight line is to go through the point (3, 4) as shown in the sketch.

Determine which line will make the area of the region enclosed by the
line and the positive x− and y− axes a minimum. Do this as follows:

(a) Give the two vertices of the triangle not at the origin some coor-
dinates.
(b) Find a relation between these.
(c) Write down the area as a function of one variable.
(d) In this problem, the variable used makes sense only if it lies in a
certain interval. What is the interval?
(e) Find the critical points of the function on this interval.
(f) Determine the value of your variable that gives a minimum area
and explain how you know it is a minimum.
(g) Does the area function you found in (c) attain a maximum value
on the interval you found in (d)?

2. A woman at point A on the shore of a circular lake with radius 2 km


wants to get to the point C diametrically opposite A in the shortest
possible time. She can walk at a rate of 4 km/h and row a boat at the
rate of 2 km/h. How should she proceed? Should she row the entire
way? Walk the entire way? Row obliquely to a point on the shore and
then walk the rest of the way?

1
3. The point A is situated on the south bank of a river, and B is on the
north bank opposite a point 600 metres downstream from A. This part
of the river is straight and 200 metres wide. An underground cable is
to be laid from A to B. It costs R180/m to lay the cable under water
and R80/m to lay the cable along the bank. It also costs R(300 + l/10)
for testing (where l is the length of the cable). If the cable is laid so as
to minimise cost, find the length of cable required.
4. The strength of a wooden beam is proportional to the product of the
width of the beam and the square of its thickness. Suppose that a
beam needs to be cut from a cylindrical log of radius r, as shown in
the diagram below. What width and thickness will yield the strongest
beam?

5. Let f (x) = x4 − 4x + 2.
(a) How many zeros does f have? Justify your answer by seeing where
f is increasing and decreasing.
(b) Give intervals (with endpoints that are consecutive integers) which
contain each of the zeros for f . Explain how you know that in each
such interval there is exactly one zero.
(c) Approximate the smallest zero of f by using Newton’s Method
with an initial estimate of x0 = 0. Use the method enough times
to get your answer correct to 2 decimal places.

2
(d) Why can you not use an initial estimate of x0 = 1 in (b) above?
(e) Suppose we wanted to solve f (x) = c instead (for the same func-
tion f ). For which values of c would there be: (i) No solutions?
(ii) One solution? (iii) Exactly two different solutions? (iv) More
than two different solutions?

6. Consider the equation x + ex = 0.

(a) Show that this equation has only one root satisfying −1 < x < 0.
(b) Starting with x1 = − 12 , use Newton’s Method to find two further
approximations to this root.

7. While trying to find the acidity of a saturated solution of magnesium


hydroxide in hydrochloric acid, a researcher derives the equation

3.64 × 10−11 h i
h i2 = H3 O +
+ 3.6 × 10−4
H3 O+
h i
for the hydronium ion concentration H3 O+ .
h i h i
(a) To find the value of H3 O+ , the researcher sets x = 104 H3 O+
and converts the equation to a function of the form x3 +ax2 −b = 0.
Find a and b.
(b) Solve the polynomial above for x to two decimal places using New-
tons Method.

8. Use Newton’s method to find 10−1/3 correct to 2 decimal places.


n
X
9. Find k(k + 1).
k=1

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