THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG
DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS
MATH1013 University Mathematics II
Tutorial 4
In this tutorial, you are not allowed to use L’Hôpital’s rule.
1. Compute each of the following limits or show that it is ∞ or −∞.
(a) lim (5x − 2x )
x→∞
x
(b) lim √
x→−∞ x2 + 4
(c) lim (2 cos x + 3)ex
x→−∞
1 x
2. It is known that lim (1 + ) = e ≈ 2.718. Compute each of the following limits.
x→∞ x
2x + 1 x must
(a) lim ( )
x→∞ 2x − 1
√x
(b) lim+ 1 + x
x→0
3. Let f ∶ X → Y be a function. An extension of f is a function f̃ ∶ X ′ → Y such that X ′ contains
X and f̃(x) = f (x) for all x ∈ X. Determine whether the function
2π
f (x) = (π + cos ) sin (1 − cos x)
x
has an extension which is continuous at 0.
4. For each of the following, give a function that satisfies the condition.
*** (a) A continuous function f ∶ (a, b) → R that has both global maximum and global minimum.
***
(b) A continuous function f ∶ (a, b) → R that has no global extremum.
***
(c) A continuous function f ∶ R → R that has no global extremum.
(d) A function f ∶ [a, b] → R that has no global extremum.
5. (a) (sign test) Let f be a continuous function. Suppose a1 < a2 < ⋯ < ak are the only real
numbers such that f (aj ) is undefined or f (aj ) = 0. Show that f has a constant sign on
each of the intervals
(−∞, a1 ), (a1 , a2 ), (a2 , a3 ), . . . , (ak−1 , ak ), (ak , ∞).
x2 − 3x − 10
(b) Let f (x) = . Find all intervals such that f is always positive and find all
3x2 − 11x − 20
intervals such that f is always negative.
1
Additional problems:
6. Compute each of the following limits or show that it is ∞ or −∞.
1
(a) lim x 2 ln x
x→∞
1
(b) lim+
x→0 (ln x)2
√
x2 − sin2 x
(c) lim comparison test
x→−∞ x3
1 x
(d) lim (1 + )
x→∞ x+2
7. For each of the following functions, determine all points at which it is discontinuous.
x
(a) f (x) =
∣x∣ − 1
⎧
⎪
⎪ x2 − 1
⎪
⎪
⎪ if x < −1,
⎪ x+1
(b) g(x) = ⎨ 3
⎪
⎪
⎪ x −1 if −1 ⩽ x < 1,
⎪
⎪ 2
⎪
⎩ 2x − 1 if x ⩾ 1
⎧ sin x
⎪
⎪
⎪ √ if x < 0,
⎪
⎪ −x
(c) h(x) = ⎨
⎪
⎪
⎪ ln (1 − x) if 0 ⩽ x < 1,
⎪
⎪ xx if x ⩾ 1
⎩
8. Let k and ℓ be real constants and let
⎧
⎪
⎪ 2kx + ℓ if x < −2,
⎪
⎪
⎪ −ℓx2 + 2k + 2 if −2 ⩽ x < 0,
f (x) = ⎨
⎪
⎪ x+k+ℓ+1 if 0 ⩽ x < 1,
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎩ kx3 − 3ℓ if x ⩾ 3. test 3 and 3+
Do there exist k and ℓ such that f is a continuous function? If yes, find all such pairs of k
and ℓ.
9. Let g be a function with domain (−∞, 0) ∪ (0, ∞) and range (−∞, 0) ∪ (0, ∞). Suppose
lim g(x) = 0, and define
x→0
1
f (x) = 2 + sin g(x) sin
g(x)
for x ≠ 0. Determine whether f has an extension which is continuous at 0.
10. Determine if each of the following is true or false.
(a) Let f ∶ (0, 4) → R be a continuous function such that f (1) > 0, f (2) < 0 and f (3) > 0.
Then the equation f (x) = 0 has at least two distinct real roots.
(b) Let f ∶ [0, 2] → R be a continuous function such that f (0) > 0 and f (2) > 0. Then the
equation f (x) = 0 has no real roots.
2
(c) Let f be a continuous function such that f (0) < 0 and f (2) > 0. Then the equation
f (x) = 0 has at least one real root.
11. Suppose f ∶ R → R is a continuous function such that lim f (x) = −∞ and lim f (x) = ∞.
x→−∞ x→∞
Show that f is surjective.
12. (a) Show that there exists a real number x ∈ (−1, 1) such that x3 + x2 = 2x + 1.
cos x
(b) Show that the equation = 1000 has a real solution.
x2
13. Starting with the initial interval [−1, 0], use the bisection method to find an approximation
to a root of the equation 2x3 − 3x2 + 4x + 1 = 0 such that the error of the approximation is less
than 0.01.