1

More Applications of
Derivatives

Module 4

Optimization
Problems, Related
Rates,
L’hospital’s Rule
and Other
Theorems

Introduction
In this module, we will be discussing
applications of derivatives such as optimization
problems and related rates problems. We will
also revisit and work on indeterminate forms
with the application of the L’hospital’s Rule.
Additional theorems pertaining to critical points
will also be discussed in this section.
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As you journey through this lesson, you are

expected to:

Learning
Solve optimization and Outcome
related rate problems and
evaluate limits using
L’hospital’s Rule

Learning
Objectives
1. Illustrate optimization problems
2. Discuss the steps in solving related rates
problems
3. Explain Rolle’s Theorem and Mean Value
Theorem
4. Explain L’Hospital’s Rule and discuss its
application

Content
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Optimization Problems

Just like any worded problem an optimization problem may be solved

by first reading it carefully. Once you’ve done that the next step is to
identify the quantity to be optimized and the constraint. The constraint
is the quantity that must be true regardless of the solution. In almost
all of the problems we’ll be looking at, one quantity will be clearly
indicated as having a fixed value and that is the constraint.

Example 1 We need to enclose a rectangular field with a fence. We

have 500 feet of fencing material and a building is on one side of the
field and so won’t need any fencing. Determine the dimensions of the
field that will enclose the largest area.

Solution:

In all of these problems we will have two functions. The first is the
function that we are actually trying to optimize and the second will be
the constraint. Sketching the situation will often help us to arrive at
these equations so let’s do that.

In this problem we want to maximize the area of a field and we know

that will use 500 ft of fencing material. So, the area will be the function
we are trying to optimize and the amount of fencing is the constraint.
The two equations for these are,

Maximize : A = xy
Constraint : 500 = x+2y
 4

The area function (as well as the constraint) has two variables in it and
so what we know about finding absolute extrema won’t work. However,
if we solve the constraint for one of the two variables we can substitute
this into the area and we will then have a function of a single variable.

So, let’s solve the constraint for x. Note that we could have just as
easily solved for y but that would have led to fractions and so, in this
case, solving for x will probably be the best thing to do.

x = 500 − 2y

Substituting this into the area function gives a function of y.

A(y) = (500−2y)y = 500y − 2y2

Now we want to find the largest value this will have on the
interval [0,250]. The limits in this interval corresponds to taking y =
0 (i.e. no sides to the fence) and y = 250 (i.e. only two sides and no
width, also if there are two sides each must be 250 ft to use the whole
500ft).

So, recall that the maximum value of a continuous function (which

we’ve got here) on a closed interval (which we also have here) will
occur at critical points and/or end points. As we’ve already pointed out
the end points in this case will give zero area which doesn’t make any
sense. That means our only option will be the critical points.

So, let’s get the derivative and find the critical points.

A′(y) = 500 − 4y

Setting this equal to zero and solving gives a lone critical point of y =
125. Plugging this into the area function gives an area of A(125) =
31250 ft2.

Finally, let’s not forget to get the value of x and then we’ll have the
dimensions since this is what the problem statement asked for. We can
get the x by plugging in our y into the constraint.

x = 500 − 2(125) = 250

Hence, the dimensions of the field that will give the largest area,
subject to the fact that we used exactly 500 ft of fencing material, are
250 x 125.
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Example 2 We want to construct a box whose base length is 3 times

the base width. The material used to build the top and bottom cost
$10/ft2 and the material used to build the sides cost $6/ft 2. If the box
must have a volume of 50ft3 determine the dimensions that will
minimize the cost to build the box.

Solution:

First, let’s draw the figure.

We want to minimize the cost of the materials subject to the constraint

that the volume must be 50ft 3. Note as well that the cost for each side
is just the area of that side times the appropriate cost.

The two functions we’ll be working with here this time are,

Minimize : C = 10(2lw) + 6(2wh+2lh) = 60w2 + 48wh

Constraint : 50 = lwh = 3w2h

As with the first example, we will solve the constraint for one of the
variables and plug this into the cost. It will definitely be easier to solve
the constraint for h so let’s do that.

50
h= 2
3w

Plugging this into the cost gives,

 6

50
C(w) = 60w2 + 48w( 2 ) = 60w + 800w
2
3w

Let’s get the first and second derivatives.

C′(w) = 120w − 800w−2

3
120 w −800
= 2
w

C″(w) = 120 + 1600w−3

Now we need the critical point(s) for the cost function. First, notice
that w = 0 is not a critical point. Clearly the derivative does not exist at
w = 0 but then neither does the function and remember that values
of w will only be critical points if the function also exists at that point.
Note that there is also a physical reason to avoid w = 0. We are
constructing a box and it would make no sense to have a zero width of
the box.

So, it looks like the only critical point will come from determining
where the numerator is zero.

120w3 – 800 = 0 ⇒ w =
√
3 800
120
=
√3 20

3
= 1.8821

The Second Derivative test will work quickly and simply here. First, we
know that whatever the value of w that we get it will have to be
positive and we can see second derivative above that provided w >
0 we will have C″(w) > 0 and so in the interval of possible optimal
values the cost function will always be concave up and so w =
1.8821 must give the absolute minimum cost.

All we need to do now is to find the remaining dimensions.

w = 1.8821
l = 3w = 3(1.8821) = 5.6463
 7

50 50
h= 2 = 2 = 4.7050
3w 3 (1.8821 )

Also, even though it was not asked for, the minimum cost is :

C(1.8821) = $637.60.

Example 4 A manufacturer needs to make a cylindrical can that will

hold 1.5 liters of liquid. Determine the dimensions of the can that will
minimize the amount of material used in its construction.

Solution:

Before starting the solution let’s first address the fact that we are using
liters for volume. Because we want length measurements for the
radius and height we’ll also need the volume to be in terms of a length
measurement. We can easily do this using the fact that 1 Liter = 1000
cm3 and so we can convert 1.5 liters into 1500 cm 3. This will in turn
give a radius and height in terms of centimeters.

In this problem the constraint is the volume and we want to minimize

the amount of material used. This means that what we want to
minimize is the surface area of the can and we’ll need to include both
the walls of the can as well as the top and bottom “caps”. Here is a
quick sketch to get us started off.
 8

We’ll need the surface area of this can and that will be the surface
area of the walls of the can (which is really just a cylinder) and the
area of the top and bottom caps (which are just disks, and don’t forget
that there are two of them).

We know the formulas for the volume and surface area of the walls of a
cylinder which are,

V = πr2h
A = 2πrh

Adding the surface area of the caps of the cylinder to the surface area
the equations that we’ll need for this problem are,

Minimize : A = 2πrh + 2πr2

Constraint : 1500 = πr2h

In this case it looks like our best option is to solve the constraint
for h and plug this into the area function.

2 ⇒
1500 1500 3000
h= A(r) = 2πr( 2 ) + 2πr = 2πr +
2 2
πr πr r

Notice that this formula will only make sense from a physical
standpoint if r > 0 which is a good thing as it is not defined at r = 0.

Next, let’s get the first derivative.

3
3000 4 π r −3000
A′(r) = 4πr − 2 = 2
r r

From this we can see that we have one critical point:

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r=
√
3 750
π
= 6.2035(where the derivative is zero).

Note that r = 0 is not a critical point because the area function does
not exist there, which makes sense from a physical standpoint as well
given that we know that r must be positive in order to actually have a
can.

It’s not difficult, using test points, to check that if 0 < r < 6.2035 then
A′(r) < 0 and likewise if r > 6.2035 then A′(r) > 0. The variant of the
First Derivative Test above then tells us that the absolute minimum
value of the area (for r > 0) must occur at

r = 6.2035.

All we need to do this is determine the height of the can and we’ll be
done.

1500
h= 2 = 12.4070
π ( 6.2035 )

Therefore, if the manufacturer makes the can with a radius of 6.2035

cm and a height of 12.4070 cm the least amount of material will be
used to make the can.

Example 6 A printer needs to make a poster that will have a total area
of 200 in2 and will have 1 inch margins on the sides, a 2 inch margin at
the top and a 1.5 inch margin at the bottom as shown below. What
dimensions will give the largest printed area?
 10

Solution:

This problem is a little different from the previous problems. Both the
constraint and the function we are going to optimize are areas. The
constraint is that the overall area of the poster must be 200 in 2 while
we want to optimize the printed area (i.e. the area of the poster with
the margins taken out).

Let’s define the height of the poster to be h and the width of the poster
to be w. Here is a new sketch of the poster and we can see that once
we’ve taken the margins into account the width of the printed area
is w−2 and the height of the printer area is h−3.5.

Here are the equations that we’ll be working out.

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Maximize : A = (w−2)(h−3.5)
Constraint : 200 = wh

Solving the constraint for h and plugging into the equation for the
printed area gives,

400
A(w) = (w−2)(200w−3.5) = 207 − 3.5w −
w

The first and second derivatives are,

2
400 400−3.5 w
A′(w) = −3.5 + 2 = 2
w w
−800
A″(w) = 3
w

From the first derivative we have the following two critical points (w =
0 is not a critical point because the area function does not exist there).

√
w = ± 400 = ±10.6904
3.5

However, since we’re dealing with the dimensions of a piece of paper

we know that we must have w > 0 and so only 10.6904 will make
sense.

Also notice that provided w > 0 the second derivative will always be
negative and so in the range of possible optimal values of the width
the area function is always concave down and so we know that the
maximum printed area will be at w = 10.6904inches.

The height of the paper that gives the maximum printed area is then,
 12

200
h= = 18.7084 inches
10.6904

Example 8 A trough for holding water is formed by taking a piece of

sheet metal 60 cm wide and folding the 20 cm on either end up as
shown below. Determine the angle θ that will maximize the amount of
water that the trough can hold.

Solution:

Now, in this case we are being asked to maximize the volume that a
trough can hold, but if you think about it the volume of a trough in this
shape is nothing more than the cross-sectional area times the length of
the trough. So, for a given length in order to maximize the volume all
you really need to do is maximize the cross-sectional area.

To get a formula for the cross-sectional area let’s redo the sketch
above a little.

We can think of the cross-sectional area as a rectangle in the middle

with width 20 and height h and two identical triangles on either end
with height h, base b and hypotenuse 20. Also note that basic
geometry tells us that the angle between the hypotenuse and the base
must also be the same angle θ that we had in our original sketch.

Also, basic right triangle trigonometry tells us that the base and height
can be written as,
 13

b = 20cosθ h = 20sinθ

The cross-sectional area for the whole trough, in terms of θ, is then,

1
A = 20h + 2( bh)
2
= 400sinθ + (20cosθ)(20sinθ)
= 400(sinθ + sinθcosθ)

The derivative of the area is,

A′(θ) = 400(cosθ + cos2θ − sin2θ)

= 400(cosθ + cos2θ − (1−cos2θ))
= 400(2cos2θ + cosθ − 1)
= 400(2cosθ − 1)(cosθ + 1)

So, we have either,

⇒ ⇒
1 π
2cosθ − 1 = 0 cosθ = θ=
⇒ ⇒
2 3
cosθ + 1 = 0 cosθ = −1 θ=π

π
However, we can see that θ must be in the interval 0 ≤ θ ≤ or we
2
won’t get a trough in the proper shape.

Finally, since the equation for the area is continuous all we need to do
is plug in the critical point and the end points to find the one that gives
the maximum area.

π π
A(0) = 0 A( ) = 519.6152 A( ) = 400
3 2
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So, we will get a maximum cross-sectional area, and hence a

π
maximum volume, when θ = .
3

Example 7 Two poles, one 6 meters tall and one 15 meters tall, are 20
meters apart. A length of wire is attached to the top of each pole and it
is also staked to the ground somewhere between the two poles. Where
should the wire be staked so that the angle formed by the two pieces
of wire at the stake is a maximum?

Solution:

Here’s a sketch for this example with some more information added.
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The equation that we’re going to need to work with here is obvious. We
can see from the sketch above that,

δ + θ+ φ = 180 = π

Note that we need to make sure that the equation is equal

to π because of how we’re going to work this problem. Now, basic right
triangle trigonometry tells us the following,
⇒
6 6
tanδ = δ = tan−1( )
x x

⇒
15 15
tanφ = φ = tan−1( )
20−x 20−x
Plugging these into the equation above and solving for θ gives,
6 15
θ = π − tan−1( ) − tan−1( )
x 20−x
Note that this is the reason for the π in our equation. The inverse
tangents give angles that are in radians and so can’t use the 180 that
we’re used to in this kind of equation.

Next, we’ll need the derivative so hopefully you’ll recall how

to differentiate inverse tangents.

1 1
6 15
( )
2
θ′ = − 6 (− 2 )− 15 ( )
1+ 2 x 1+ ( 20−x )2
x 20−x
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6 15
= 2 − 2
x +36 ( 20−x ) +225
6 15
= 2 - 2
x +36 x −40 x+ 625
= −3 ¿ ¿

Setting this equal to zero and solving give the following two critical
points.

−40 ± √ 4810
x= = −36.4514 and 9.7847
3

The first critical point is not in the interval of possible solutions and so
we can exclude it.

Clearly x must be in the interval [0,20] and so using test points it’s not
difficult to show that if 0 ≤ x < 9.7847 we have θ′ > 0 (and so θ is
increasing) and if 9.7847 < x ≤ 20 that θ′ < 0 (and so is decreasing).
So by the first derivative test when x = 9.7847 we will get the
maximum value of θ.

Related Rates

In this section we are going to look at an application of implicit

differentiation. However, here we will differentiate each quantity with
respect to time.

For these related rates problems, it’s usually best to just jump right
into some problems and see how they work.

Example 1 Air is being pumped into a spherical balloon at a rate of 5

cm3/min. Determine the rate at which the radius of the balloon is
increasing when the diameter of the balloon is 20 cm.
Solution:
 17

The first thing that we’ll need to do here is to identify what information
that we’ve been given and what we want to find. Before we do that
let’s notice that both the volume of the balloon and the radius of the
balloon will vary with time and so are really functions of
time, i.e. V(t) and r(t).

We know that air is being pumped into the balloon at a rate of 5

cm3/min. This is the rate at which the volume is increasing. Recall that
rates of change are nothing more than derivatives and so we know
that,

dV
∨¿V′(t) = 5
dt

dr
We want to determine the rate at which the radius is changing, ∨¿r′
dt
(t) . Again, rates are derivatives and so it looks like we want to
determine,

dr d
∨¿r′(t) = ? when r(t) = = 10cm
dt 2

Note that we needed to convert the diameter to a radius.

In this case we can relate the volume and the radius with the formula
for the volume of a sphere.

4 3
V= πr
3

Now we don’t really want a relationship between the volume and the
radius. What we really want is a relationship between their derivatives.
We can do this by differentiating both sides with respect to t. In other
words, we will need to do implicit differentiation on the above formula.
Doing this gives,
 18

V′ = 4πr2r′

Note that at this point we went ahead and dropped the (t) from each of
the terms. Now all that we need to do is plug in what we know and
solve for what we want to find.

⇒
1
5 = 4π(102)r′ r′ = cm/min
80 π

Example 2 A 15 foot ladder is resting against the wall. The bottom is

initially 10 feet away from the wall and is being pushed towards the
1
wall at a rate of ft/sec. How fast is the top of the ladder moving up
4
the wall 12 seconds after we start pushing?

Solution:

The first thing to do in this case is to sketch a picture that shows us

what is going on.

We’ve defined the distance of the bottom of the ladder from the wall to
be x and the distance of the top of the ladder from the floor to be y.
Note as well that these are changing with time and so we really should
write x(t) and y(t). However, as is often the case with related
rates/implicit differentiation problems we don’t write the (t) part just
try to remember this in our heads as we proceed with the problem.
 19

Next, we need to identify what we know and what we want to find. We

know that the rate at which the bottom of the ladder is moving towards
the wall. This is,

x′ = −14

Note as well that the rate is negative since the distance from the
wall, x, is decreasing. We always need to be careful with signs with
these problems.

We want to find the rate at which the top of the ladder is moving away
from the floor. This is y′. Note as well that this quantity should be
positive since y will be increasing.

As with the first example we first need a relationship between x and y.

We can get this using Pythagorean theorem.

x2 + y2 = (15)2 = 225

All that we need to do at this point is to differentiate both sides with

respect to t, remembering that x and y are really functions of t and so
we’ll need to do implicit differentiation. Doing this gives an equation
that shows the relationship between the derivatives.

2xx′+2yy′ = 0 (1)

Next, let’s see which of the various parts of this equation that we know
and what we need to find. We know x′ and are being asked to
determine y′ so it’s okay that we don’t know that. However, we still
need to determine x and y.

Determining x and y is actually fairly simple. We know that initially x =

1
10 and the end is being pushed in towards the wall at a rate of ft/sec
4
and that we are interested in what has happened after 12 seconds. We
know that,

1
distance = rate×time = ( )(12) = 3
4

So, the end of the ladder has been pushed in 3 feet and so after 12
seconds we must have x = 7. Note that we could have computed this
in one step as follows,

1
x = 10 − (12) = 7
4
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To find y (after 12 seconds) all that we need to do is reuse the

Pythagorean Theorem with the values of x that we just found above.

y = √ 225−x 2 = √ 225−49 = √ 176

Now all that we need to do is plug into (1) and solve for y′.

2xx′+2yy′ = 0

+ 2 ( √ 176 ) y’ = 0 ⇒ y’ =
7
2 (7)( )
−1
4
4 =
√176
7
4 √ 176
= 0.1319 ft/sec

Example 3 Two people on bikes are separated by 350 meters. Person

A starts riding north at a rate of 5 m/sec and 7 minutes later Person B
starts riding south at 3 m/sec. At what rate is the distance separating
the two people changing 25 minutes after Person A starts riding?

Solution:

Let’s start off with a sketch of the situation that shows each person’s
location sometime after both people start riding.
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Now we are after z′ and we know that x′ = 5 and y′ = 3. We want to

know z′ after Person A had been riding for 25 minutes and Person B has
been riding for 25−7 = 18 minutes. After converting these times to
seconds (because our rates are all in m/sec) this means that at the
time we’re interested in each of the bike riders has rode,

x = 5(25×60) = 7500m y =3(18×60) = 3240m

Next, the Pythagorean theorem tells us that,

z2 = (x+y)2 + 3502
(2)

Therefore, 25 minutes after Person A starts riding the two bike riders
are

z = √ ( x+ y )2+350 2 = √ ( 7500+3240 )2 +3502 = 10745.7015m

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apart.

To determine the rate at which the two riders are moving apart all we
need to do then is differentiate (2) and plug in all the quantities that
we know to find z′.

2zz′ = 2(x+y)(x′+y′)
2(10745.7015)z′ = 2(7500+3240)(5+3)
z′ =7.9958m/sec

So, the two riders are moving apart at a rate of 7.9958 m/sec.

Example 3 Two people are 50 feet apart. One of them starts walking
north at a rate so that the angle shown in the diagram below is
changing at a constant rate of 0.01 rad/min. At what rate is distance
between the two people changing when θ = 0.5 radian?

Solution

Let x be the distance between the two persons at any point in time x.
We can then relate all the known quantities by one of two trig
formulas.

50 x
cosθ = secθ =
x 50
 23

We can use either one of the formulas above but at this point let’s use
the second formula so we won’t need to plug in the value of x. So,
let’s differentiate that formula.

x'
secθtanθ θ′ =
50

As noted, there are no x’s in this formula. We want to determine x′ and

we know that θ = 0.5 and θ′ = 0.01 so, just plug in and solve.

x’ = 50 secθ tanθ θ '

x’ = 50 sec(0.5)tan(0.05)(0.01)

= 0.311254ft/min

Example 4 A tank of water in the shape of a cone is leaking water at

a constant rate of 2ft3/hour. The base radius of the tank is 5 ft and the
height of the tank is 14 ft.

1. At what rate is the depth of the water in the tank changing when
the depth of the water is 6 ft?
2. At what rate is the radius of the top of the water in the tank
changing when the depth of the water is 6 ft?

Discussion:
 24

We should probably start off with a quick sketch (probably not to scale)
of what is going on here. We’ll also be doing the sketch as if we were
looking at the tank from directly in front of it (and so the 3D of the tank
will not be visible) as this will help a little with seeing what is going on.
So here is the sketch of the tank with some water in it.

As we can see, the water in the tank actually forms a smaller

cone/triangle (depending on which image we are looking at) with the
same central angle as the tank itself. The radius of the “water” cone at
any time is given by r and the height of the “water” cone at any time is
given by h. The volume of water in the tank at any time t is given by,

1 2
V= πr h
3

and we’ve been given that V′ = −2.

a At what rate is the depth of the water in the tank changing when the
depth of the water is 6 ft?

Solution:
 25

For this part we need to determine h′ when h = 6 and now we have a

problem. The only formula that we’ve got that will relate the volume to
the height also includes the radius and so if we were to differentiate
this with respect to t we would get,

2 1
V′ = πrr′h + πr2h′
3 3

So, in this equation we know V′ and h and want to find h′, but we don’t
know r and r′. As we’ll see finding r isn’t too bad, but we just don’t
have enough information, at this point, that will allow us to find r′ and h
′ simultaneously.

To fix this we’ll need to eliminate the r from the volume formula in
some way. This is actually easier than it might at first look. If we go
back to our sketch above and look at just the right half of the tank we
see that we have two similar triangles and when we say similar we
mean similar in the geometric sense. Recall that two triangles are
called similar if their angles are identical, which is the case here. When
we have two similar triangles then ratios of any two sides will be equal.
For our set this means that we have,

⇒
r 5 5
= r= h
h 14 14

If we take this and plug it into our volume formula we have,

V=
1 2
3
1 5 2
πr h = π
3 14 ( )
h h=
25
588
πh3

This gives us a volume formula that only involved the volume and the
height of the water. Note however that this volume formula is only
valid for our cone, so don’t be tempted to use it for other cones! If we
now differentiate this we have,
 26

25
V′ = πh2h′
196

At this point all we need to do is plug in what we know and solve for h′.

⇒
25 −98
−2 = π(62)h′ h′ = π = −0.1386
196 225

So, it looks like the height is decreasing at a rate of 0.1386 ft/hr.

b At what rate is the radius of the top of the water in the tank changing
when the depth of the water is 6 ft?

Solution:

In this case we are asking for r′ and there is an easy way to do this part
and a difficult (well, more difficult than the easy way anyway….) way to
do it. The “difficult” way is to redo the work in part (a) above only this
time use,

⇒
h 14 14
= h= r
r 5 5

to get the volume in terms of V and r and then proceed as before.

That’s not terribly difficult, but it is more work that we need to so.
Recall from the first part that we have,

⇒
5 5
r= h r′ = h′
14 14
 27

So, as we can see if we take the relationship that relates r and h that
we used in the first part and differentiate it we get a relationship
between r′ and h′. At this point all we need to do here is use the result
from the first part to get,

5 98 7
r′ = (− )=- = −0.04951
14 225 π 45 π

Much easier that redoing all of the first part. Note however, that we
were only able to do this the “easier” way because it was asking for r′
at exactly the same time that we asked for h′ in the first part. If we
hadn’t been using the same time then we would have had no choice
but to do this the “difficult” way.

The Mean Value Theorem

Before we get to the Mean Value Theorem we need to cover the

following theorem.

Rolle’s Theorem

Suppose f(x) is a function that satisfies all of the following.

1. f(x) is continuous on the closed interval [a,b].

2. f(x) is differentiable on the open interval (a,b).

3. f(a) = f(b)

Then there is a number c such that a < c < b and f′(c) = 0. Or, in other
words f(x) has a critical point in (a,b).

Let’s take a look at a quick example that uses Rolle’s Theorem.

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Example 1 Show that f(x) = 4x5+x3+7x−2 has exactly one real root.

Solution:

From basic Algebra principles we know that since f(x) is a 5th degree
polynomial it will have five roots. What we’re being asked to prove
here is that only one of those 5 is a real number and the other 4 must
be complex roots.
First, we should show that it does have at least one real root. To do this
note that f(0)=−2 and that f(1)=10 and so we can see that f(0) < 0 <
f(1). Now, because f(x) is a polynomial we know that it is continuous
everywhere and so by the Intermediate Value Theorem there is a
number c such that 0 < c < 1 and f(c) = 0. In other words f(x) has at
least one real root.
We now need to show that this is in fact the only real root. To do this
we’ll use an argument that is called contradiction proof. What we’ll do
is assume that f(x) has at least two real roots. This means that we can
find real numbers a and b (there might be more, but all we need for
this particular argument is two) such that f(a) = f(b) = 0. But if we do
this then we know from Rolle’s Theorem that there must then be
another number c such that f′(c)=0.

This is a problem however. The derivative of this function is,

f′(x) = 20x4+3x2+7

Because the exponents on the first two terms are even we know that
the first two terms will always be greater than or equal to zero and we
are then going to add a positive number onto that and so we can see
that the smallest the derivative will ever be is 7 and this contradicts
the statement above that says we MUST have a number c such that f′
(c) = 0.
We reached these contradictory statements by assuming that f(x) has
at least two roots. Since this assumption leads to a contradiction the
assumption must be false and so we can only have a single real root.

Mean Value Theorem

Suppose f(x) is a function that satisfies both of the following.

 29

1. f(x) is continuous on the closed interval [a,b].

2. f(x) is differentiable on the open interval (a,b).

Then there is a number c such that a < c < b and

f (b)−f (a)
f′(c) =
b−a

Or,

f(b)−f(a)=f′(c)(b−a)

Note that the Mean Value Theorem doesn’t tell us what c is. It only tells
us that there is at least one number c that will satisfy the conclusion of
the theorem.

Also note that if it weren’t for the fact that we needed Rolle’s Theorem
to prove this we could think of Rolle’s Theorem as a special case of the
Mean Value Theorem. To see that just assume that f(a) = f(b) and then
the result of the Mean Value Theorem gives the result of Rolle’s
Theorem.

Before we take a look at a couple of examples let’s think about a

geometric interpretation of the Mean Value Theorem. First define A =
(a,f(a)) and B = (b,f(b)) and then we know from the Mean Value
theorem that there is a c such that a < c < b and that

f (b)−f (a)
f′(c) =
b−a

Now, if we draw in the secant line connecting A and B then we can

know that the slope of the secant line is,

f (b)−f (a)
b−a
 30

Likewise, if we draw in the tangent line to f(x) at x = c we know that its

slope is f′(c).

What the Mean Value Theorem tells us is that these two slopes must
be equal or in other words the secant line connecting A and B and the
tangent line at x = c must be parallel. We can see this in the following
sketch.

Let’s now take a look at a couple of examples using the Mean Value
Theorem.

Example 2 Determine all the numbers c which satisfy the conclusions

of the Mean Value Theorem for the following function.

f(x) = x3 + 2x2 − x on [−1,2]

Solution:

There isn’t really a whole lot to this problem other than to notice that
since f(x) is a polynomial it is both continuous and differentiable
(i.e. the derivative exists) on the interval given.

First let’s find the derivative.

 31

f′(x) = 3x2 + 4x − 1

Now, to find the numbers that satisfy the conclusions of the Mean
Value Theorem all we need to do is plug this into the formula given by
the Mean Value Theorem.

f (2)−f (−1)
f′(c) =
2−(−1)
14−2 12
3c2+4c−1 = = =4
3 3

Now, this is just a quadratic equation,

3c2+4c−1=4
3c2+4c−5=0

Using the quadratic formula on this we get,

−4 ± √ 16−4 (3)(−5) −4 ± √ 76
c = =
6 6

So, solving gives two values of c.

−4 + √ 76 −4−√ 76
c= = 0.7863 c= = −2.1196
6 6

Notice that only one of these is actually in the interval given in the
problem. That means that we will exclude the second one (since it isn’t
in the interval). The number that we’re after in this problem is,
 32

c = 0.7863

Be careful to not assume that only one of the numbers will work. It is
possible for both of them to work.

L'Hospital's Rule and Indeterminate Forms

Back in the module on Limits we saw methods for dealing with the
following limits.

2 2
x −16 4 x −5 x
lim lim 2
x→ 4 x−4 x→ ∞ 1−3 x

0
In the first limit if we plugged in x = 4 we would get and in the
0
∞ −∞
second limit if we “plugged” in infinity we would get or
−∞ ∞
(Recall that as x goes to infinity a polynomial will behave in the same
fashion that its largest power behaves). Both of these are
called indeterminate forms. In both of these cases there are
competing interests or rules and it’s not clear which will win out.

This is the problem with indeterminate forms. It’s just not clear what is
happening in the limit. There are other types of indeterminate forms as
well. Some other types are,

(0)(±∞) 1∞ 00 ∞0 ∞−∞

These all have competing interests or rules that tell us what should
happen and it’s just not clear which, if any, of the interests or rules will
win out. The topic of this section is how to deal with these kinds of
limits.
 33

As already pointed out we do know how to deal with some kinds of

indeterminate forms already. For the two limits above we work them as
follows.

2
x −16 ( x+ 4 ) = 8
lim = lim
x→ 4 x−4 x→ 4

5
2
4−
4 x −5 x x 4
lim 2 =
lim =−
x→ ∞ 1−3 x x→ ∞ 1 3
2
−3
x

In the first case we simply factored, canceled and took the limit and in
the second case we factored out an x2 from both the numerator and
the denominator and took the limit.

So, we can deal with some of these. However, what about the following
two limits.

x
sin x e
lim lim 2
x →0 x x→ ∞ x

0
This first is a indeterminate form, but we can’t factor this one. The
0
∞
second is an indeterminate form, but we can’t just factor an x2 out
∞
of the numerator. So, nothing that we’ve got will work with these two
limits.

This is where the subject of this section comes into play.

L’Hospital’s Rule

Suppose that we have one of the following cases,

 34

f (x) 0 f (x) ±∞
lim = OR lim =
x →a g(x ) 0 x →a g(x ) ±∞

where a can be any real number, infinity or negative infinity. In these

cases we have,

f (x) f ' ( x)
lim =lim
x →a g(x ) x→ a g '(x )

0
So, L’Hospital’s Rule tells us that if we have an indeterminate form or
0
∞
all we need to do is differentiate the numerator and differentiate
∞
the denominator and then take the limit.

Let’s work some examples.

sin x
a. Evaluate lim .
x →0 x

Solution:

0
So, we have already established that this is a indeterminate form
0
so let’s just apply L’Hospital’s Rule.

sin x sin x cos x 1

lim = lim = lim = =1
x →0 x x →0 x x →0 x 1

x
e
b Evaluate lim 2
x→ ∞ x

Solution:
 35

This was the other limit that we started off looking at and we know that
∞
it’s the indeterminate form so let’s apply L’Hospital’s Rule.
∞
x x
e e
2 = lim
lim
x→ ∞ x x→ ∞ 2 x

∞
Now we have a small problem. This new limit is also a indeterminate
∞
form. However, it’s not really a problem. We know how to deal with
these kinds of limits. Just apply L’Hospital’s Rule.

x x x
e e e
lim 2 = lim 2 = lim =∞
x→ ∞ x x→ ∞ x x→ ∞ 2

Sometimes we will need to apply L’Hospital’s Rule more than once.

0
L’Hospital’s Rule works great on the two indeterminate forms
0
±∞
and . However, there are many more indeterminate forms out there
±∞
as we saw earlier. Let’s take a look at some of those and see how we
deal with those kinds of indeterminate forms.

We’ll start with the indeterminate form (0)(±∞).

Example 2 Evaluate the following limit.

lim ¿
+¿
x→ 0 x lnx ¿

Solution:
 36

Note that we really do need to do the right-hand limit here. We know

that the natural logarithm is only defined for positive x and so this is
the only limit that makes any sense.

Now, in the limit, we get the indeterminate form (−∞). L’Hospital’s

Rule won’t work on products, it only works on quotients. However, we
can turn this into a fraction if we rewrite things a little.

lim ¿
lim ¿= x→ 0 lnx ¿ +¿
+¿
x→ 0 x lnx ¿ 1
x

The function is the same, just rewritten, and the limit is now in the
−∞
form and we can now use L’Hospital’s Rule.
∞

lim ¿ lim ¿
1
lim ¿= x→ 0
+¿ lnx
¿ = +¿ x
+¿
x→ 0 x lnx ¿ 1 x→ 0 ¿
−1
x
x2

Now, this is a mess, but it cleans up nicely.

lim ¿
lim ¿= 1
+¿ x = lim ¿= 0
+¿ +¿
x→ 0 x lnx ¿ x→ 0 ¿ x→ 0 (−x)¿
−1
x2

In the previous example we used the fact that we can always write a
product of functions as a quotient by doing one of the following.
 37

g (x) f (x)
f ( x ) g ( x) = 1 or f ( x ) g ( x) = 1
f (x) g(x )

Using these two facts will allow us to turn any limit in the form (0)
0 ±∞
(±∞) into a limit in the form or . Which one of these two we get
0 ±∞
after doing the rewrite will depend upon which fact we used to do the
0 ±∞
rewrite. One of the rewrites will give and the other will give
0 ±∞

Let’s take a look at another example.

Example 3 Evaluate the following limit.

x
lim x e
x→−∞

Solution:

So, it’s in the form (∞)(0). This means that we’ll need to write it as a
quotient. Moving the x to the denominator worked in the previous
example so let’s try that with this problem as well.

x
e
x
lim x e = lim
x→−∞
x→−∞ 1
x

Writing the product in this way gives us a product that has the form
0/0 in the limit. So, let’s use L’Hospital’s Rule on the quotient.
 38

x x x x x
e e e e e
x lim
lim x e = x→−∞ lim lim lim lim
x→−∞
1 = x→−∞ −1 = x→−∞ 2 = x→−∞ −6 = x→−∞ −1 =…
2 3 4 2
x x x x x

This doesn’t seem to be getting us anywhere. With each application of

0
L’Hospital’s Rule we just end up with another indeterminate form and
0
in fact the derivatives seem to be getting worse and worse. Also note
that if we simplified the quotient back into a product we would just end
up with either (∞)(0) or (−∞)(0) and so that won’t do us any good.

This does not mean however that the limit can’t be done. It just means
that we moved the wrong function to the denominator. Let’s move the
exponential function instead.

x
x lim x
lim x e = x→−∞ 1 = lim −x
x→−∞
x x→−∞ e
e

Note that we used the fact that,

1
x = e
−x
e

This will help us when it comes time to take some derivatives. The
∞
quotient is now an indeterminate form of - and using L’Hospital’s
∞
Rule gives,

x
lim x e = lim x 1
−x =
lim −x = 0
x→−∞ x→−∞ e x→−∞ −e

So, when faced with a product 0)(±∞) we can turn it into a quotient
that will allow us to use L’Hospital’s Rule. However, as we saw in the
last example we need to be careful with how we do that on occasion.
 39

Sometimes we can use either quotient and in other cases only one will
work.

Let’s now take a look at the indeterminate forms,

∞ 0 0
1 0 ∞

These can all be dealt with in the following way so we’ll just work one
example.

Example 4 Evaluate the following limit.

1
lim x x
x→ ∞

Solution:

In the limit this is the indeterminate form ∞ 0. We’re actually going to

spend most of this problem on a different limit. Let’s first define the
following.
1
y = xx

Now, if we take the natural log of both sides we get,

1 1 lnx
ln(y) = ln( x x ) = lnx =
x x

Let’s now take a look at the following limit.

1
lim ln ⁡( y ¿)¿ = lim lnx = 0
x = =0
x→ ∞ x→ ∞ x lim 1
x→ ∞ 1
 40

This limit was just a L’Hospital’s Rule problem and we know how to do
those. So, what did this have to do with our limit? Well first notice that,
ln ⁡( y)
e =y

and so our limit could be written as,

1
lim x x = lim y = lim e ln ⁡(y)
x→ ∞ x→ ∞
x→ ∞

We can now use the limit above to finish this problem.

1
lim x x = lim y = lim e ln ⁡(y) = lim ln ⁡( y) = e 0 = 1
x→ ∞ x→ ∞
e ❑

x→ ∞

With L’Hospital’s Rule we are now able to take the limit of a wide
variety of indeterminate forms that we were unable to deal with prior
to this section.

Assessment Tasks 4

1. We want to construct a cylindrical can with a bottom but no top that

will have a volume of 30 cm3. Determine the dimensions of the can
that will minimize the amount of material needed to construct the can.
 41

2. A thin sheet of ice is in the form of a circle. If the ice is melting in

such a way that the area of the sheet is decreasing at a rate of 0.5
m2/sec at what rate is the radius decreasing when the area of the
sheet is 12 m2?

3. Determine all the number(s) c which satisfy the conclusion of Rolle’s

Theorem for the given function and interval.

f(x) = x2 − 2x − 8 on [−1,3]

4. Determine all the number(s) c which satisfy the conclusion of the

Mean Value Theorem for the given function and interval.

h(z) = 4z3 − 8z2 + 7z − 2 on [2,5]

5. Use L’Hospital’s Rule to evaluate each of the following limits.

3 2
2 x −7 x +10 x
a. lim 2
x →2 x + x−6

ln ⁡(3 t)
b. lim
t →∞ t2

References
 42

1. Love and Rainville. Differential and Integral Calculus 6th Ed. Copyright
1962. Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc
Ayres and [Link] and Problems of Differential Calculus 3rd ed,
2. Peterson. Calculus with Analytic Geometry
3. Smith, R.T. & Minton, R.B. Calculus 3rd ed. Copyright 2007. McGraw-Hill Co.,
Inc.
4. Tan, J. & Reyes, F. Elements of Differential and Integral Calculus. Copyright
1997. UST Publishing House
5. Masaoy, EJ et al. Calculus with Analytic Geometry Part 1. Copyright 1986.
National Book Store, Inc.

Prepared by:

Sharon M. Galicha, LPT, MS MATH ED

Asst Professor 2