AP CALCULUS AB Scoring Guide
Unit 4 Progress Check: MCQ
1. The mass of a colony of bacteria, in grams, is modeled by the function given by ,
where is measured in days. What is the instantaneous rate of change of the mass of the colony, in grams per day, at
the moment the colony reaches a mass of 6 grams?
(A)
(B) 0.250
(C) 1.214
(D) 1.942
Answer C
Correct. Find the time when the colony reaches a mass of 6 grams by using the calculator to solve the
equation . The solution is . Since the derivative can
be interpreted as the instantaneous rate of change of with respect to time, the calculator is used to
numerically calculate the derivative of at this value of .
2. The derivative of the function is given by , and . If the linear
approximation to at is used to estimate , at what value of does the linear approximation
estimate that ?
(A) 0.498
(B) 1.166
(C) 1.698
(D) 2.400
Answer C
Correct. The linear approximation to at will be . Since
, the linear approximation is .
The linear approximation will estimate that when
.
3. Oil is spilled onto a kitchen floor. The area covered by the oil at time is given by the function , where is
measured in square centimeters and is measured in seconds. Which of the following gives the rate at which the
area covered by the oil is changing at time ?
AP Calculus AB Page 1 of 12
Scoring Guide
Unit 4 Progress Check: MCQ
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
Answer D
Correct. The derivative of the function evaluated at gives the rate of change of the area
covered by the oil at time .
4.
The figure above shows the graph of the differentiable function for and the secant line through the
points and . For how many values of in the closed interval does the instantaneous
rate of change of at equal the average rate of change of over that interval?
(A) Zero
(B) Two
(C) Three
(D) Four
Page 2 of 12 AP Calculus AB
Scoring Guide
Unit 4 Progress Check: MCQ
Answer C
Correct. The graph of intersects the secant line at , , , and , where
. In each of the intervals , , and , there will be exactly one value of
at which the instantaneous rate of change of is equal to the average rate of change of over the
interval . In other words, there will be three values of at which the slope of the line tangent to
the graph of will equal the slope of the secant line.
5.
A particle moves along the -axis. The graph of the particle’s velocity at time is shown above for
. How many times does the particle change direction over the time interval ?
(A) Three
(B) Four
(C) Five
(D) Eight
Answer A
Correct. The particle’s velocity changes from negative to positive at and and from
positive to negative at . Therefore, the particle changes direction from downwards to upwards at
and and from upwards to downwards at . The particle does not change direction at
because there is no sign change in the velocity.
AP Calculus AB Page 3 of 12
Scoring Guide
Unit 4 Progress Check: MCQ
6. A particle moves along the -axis so that at time its position is given by .
What is the total distance traveled by the particle over the time interval ?
(A) 145
(B) 180
(C) 195
(D) 233
Answer D
Correct. The velocity of the particle is given by . This is
negative for and positive for . So the particle is moving left over the time interval
and moving right over the time interval . Therefore, the total distance traveled by
the particle over the time interval is given by
.
7. A particle moves along the -axis so that at time its position is given by . Over the
time interval , for what values of is the speed of the particle increasing?
(A)
(B) only
(C) and
(D) and
Answer D
Correct. The velocity of the particle is given by , and the
acceleration of the particle is given by . The speed of the particle is
increasing when the velocity and acceleration have the same sign, which occurs for and
.
8. Charles’s law states that if the pressure of a dry gas is held constant, then the volume of the gas and its
temperature , measured in degrees Kelvin, satisfy the relationship , where is a constant. Which of the
following best describes the relationship between the rate of change, with respect to time , of the volume and the
rate of change, with respect to time , of the temperature?
Page 4 of 12 AP Calculus AB
Scoring Guide
Unit 4 Progress Check: MCQ
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
Answer B
Correct. Differentiating both sides of with respect to and using the fact that is a constant,
gives this equation. In this context, and represent different quantities, and is the independent
variable. results from application of the chain rule with the derivative of .
9. A rectangle has width inches and height inches, where the width is twice the height. Both and are
functions of time , measured in seconds. If represents the area of the rectangle, which of the following gives the
rate of change of with respect to ?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
Answer D
Correct. Given that the width is twice the height, then . Differentiating with
respect to time and using the chain rule gives . Using the units for and , the units for
are or .
AP Calculus AB Page 5 of 12
Scoring Guide
Unit 4 Progress Check: MCQ
10.
A person whose height is feet is walking away from the base of a streetlight along a straight road, as shown in
the figure above. The height of the streetlight is feet. At time seconds, the person is feet from the streetlight,
and the length of the person's shadow is feet. The quantities are related by the equation , where
and are constants. Which of the following best describes the relationship between the rate of change of with
respect to time and the rate of change of with respect to time?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
Answer D
Correct. Differentiating both sides of the given equation with respect to time yields
. Solving for gives .
11. A particle moves on the circle in the -plane for time . At the time when the particle is at the
point , . What is the value of at this time?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
Page 6 of 12 AP Calculus AB
Scoring Guide
Unit 4 Progress Check: MCQ
Answer D
Correct. Differentiating both sides of with respect to gives .
Substituting in the three known values gives . Solving for gives the result
.
12.
A water tank is in the shape of a right circular cone as shown above. The diameter of the cone is 10 feet, and the
height is 15 feet. The shape of the water in the tank is conical with radius feet and height feet. At noon, water is
leaking from the bottom of the tank at a rate of 12 cubic feet per hour, and the volume of water in the tank is
cubic feet. At noon, what is the rate at which the height of the water in the tank is changing? (The volume of a
right circular cone with radius and height is .)
(A) Decreasing at feet per hour
(B) Increasing at feet per hour
(C) Increasing at feet per hour
(D) Decreasing at feet per hour
Answer D
Correct. The radius of the cone is 5 feet. Using similarity, it follows that . Let denote the
volume of the cone of water in the tank. Then . From this equation,
it follows that when , . Differentiating with respect to , . Substituting
values into the differential equation we have so . Therefore, the rate at
which the height of the cone of water in the tank is changing is decreasing at feet per hour.
AP Calculus AB Page 7 of 12
Scoring Guide
Unit 4 Progress Check: MCQ
13. Two straight roads intersect at right angles. A car is traveling south toward the intersection while a radar-monitored-
speed sign is positioned mile east of the intersection. The speed sign provides both the distance from the sign to
an approaching car and the rate at which the distance between the sign and the car is changing. At a certain time, the
speed sign shows that the approaching car is exactly mile away from the sign and that the rate at which the
distance between the car and the sign is decreasing is 60 miles per hour. Which of the following is true about the
distance between the car and the intersection at this instant?
(A) The distance is increasing at a rate of miles per hour.
(B) The distance is decreasing at a rate of miles per hour.
(C) The distance is increasing at a rate of miles per hour.
(D) The distance is decreasing at a rate of miles per hour.
Answer B
Correct. Let denote the distance between the car and the speed sign and denote the distance between
the approaching car and the intersection. Then and when
. Differentiating the first equation with respect to time gives . Substituting
values for , , and , it follows that . Therefore,
miles per hour.
Because , it follows that the distance is decreasing at this instant.
14. The locally linear approximation of the differentiable function at is used to approximate the value of
. The approximation at is an underestimate of the corresponding function value at . Which
of the following could be the graph of ?
Page 8 of 12 AP Calculus AB
Scoring Guide
Unit 4 Progress Check: MCQ
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
Answer D
Correct. The tangent line is the graph of the locally linear approximation of the function near the point
of tangency at . Since this graph is concave up on the interval , the tangent line would lie
under the graph and the tangent line value at would be less than . Therefore, this could
be the graph of . The tangent line approximation is an overestimate when the line is above the curve at
the point. The tangent line approximation is an underestimate when the line is below the curve at the
AP Calculus AB Page 9 of 12
Scoring Guide
Unit 4 Progress Check: MCQ
point.
15. The line tangent to the graph of the twice-differentiable function at the point is used to approximate the
value of . Which of the following statements guarantees that the tangent line approximation at is
an overestimate of ?
(A) The function is decreasing on the interval .
(B) The function is increasing on the interval .
(C) The graph of the function is concave down on the interval .
(D) The graph of the function is concave up on the interval .
Answer C
Correct. Because the graph is concave down on the interval , the line tangent to the graph
at will lie above the graph of over the interval . Therefore the point at
on the tangent line will be above the point at on the graph of , and so the tangent line value
at will be greater than . The tangent line approximation is an overestimate when the
line is above the curve at the point. The tangent line approximation is an underestimate when the line is
below the curve at the point.
16. Which of the following limits does not yield an indeterminate form?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
Answer C
Correct. If or , then is an
indeterminate form. Here but . Therefore, is not an
indeterminate form and the value of the limit is 0.
Page 10 of 12 AP Calculus AB
Scoring Guide
Unit 4 Progress Check: MCQ
17.
Selected values of the twice-differentiable functions and and their derivatives are given in the table above. The
value of is
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D) nonexistent
Answer C
Correct. Both and are continuous because they are differentiable. Since
and ,
the limit is of the indeterminate form . Therefore, L’Hospital’s Rule can be used to find the limit. Both
and are continuous because they are differentiable.
AP Calculus AB Page 11 of 12
Scoring Guide
Unit 4 Progress Check: MCQ
18.
The figure above shows the graph of the twice-differentiable function and the line tangent to the graph of at the
point . The value of is
(A) 1
(B)
(C)
(D) nonexistent
Answer B
Correct. Substituting 0 into the fraction yields the indeterminate form because both the value of the
numerator and the value of the denominator are equal to 0. From the graph, . Therefore,
L’Hospital’s Rule can be used to find the limit.
Because and from the graph, this limit evaluates as .
Page 12 of 12 AP Calculus AB