MATH1131 Calculus

Chapter 1

Sets, inequalities and

functions

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What is calculus?

Calculus is the study of how things change.

I What does it mean to be travelling at a certain speed at a
certain moment in time?
I If I tell you my position at each moment in time, how can
you figure out my velocity at a certain moment?
I If I tell you my starting position, and my velocity at each
moment in a time interval, can you figure out where I end
up at the end of the interval?
To answer these questions, we need to be able to discuss
really, really small quantities (infinitely small!) The
mathematical concept that allows us to do this is the notion of a
limit. The second and third questions are related by the
Fundamental Theorem of Calculus.

2
Calculus was discovered independently by Isaac Newton and
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in the 17th century.

Sir Isaac Newton Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

(1642 –1727) (1646 –1716)
English physicist, German mathematician and
mathematician, astronomer, philosopher. 3
Sets and elements

I A set is a collection of objects.

I The objects in a set are called the elements or members of
the set.

Example 1.1
I MATH1131 is an element of the set of all maths courses at
UNSW.
I UCLA is not a member of the Australian universities.

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Some commonly used sets of numbers

N set of all natural numbers 0, 1, 2, . . .

Z set of all integers 0, ±1, ±2, . . .
Z+ set of all positive integers 1, 2, 3, . . .
Q set of all rational numbers,
i.e. those numbers expressible as a ratio of two integers
R set of all real numbers
R may be represented as the number line:

C set of all complex numbers

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Example 1.2
We write

14 ∈ N and read 14 is an element of the natural numbers

and
4
− / Z and read −4/3 is not an element of the integers
∈
3

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The empty set ∅
The empty set or null set, denoted by ∅, is a set which has no
members.
Example 1.3
I The set of students doing MATH1131 this year whose ages
are below 10 is an empty set.
I The set of real numbers x satisfying x 2 + 1 = 0 is an empty
set.

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Two ways to define a set

I List all members inside a pair braces: {}.

I Give a rule to determine membership in the set.

Example 1.4
I The set of natural numbers less than 3 can be represented
by one of the following ways

{0, 1, 2} or {2, 1, 0} or {n ∈ N : n < 3}.

I The equation x 2 = 1 has two real solutions 1 and −1. The

set of solutions of this equation can be written as

{−1, 1} or {x ∈ R : x 2 = 1}.

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Some useful jargon

Definition 1.1 (Subset)

I Suppose that A and B are two sets. If x ∈ A implies that
x ∈ B, then A is called a subset of B. We write A ⊂ B.
I If A is a subset of B we can also say that B contains A, and
write B ⊃ A.

Example 1.5

N ⊂ Z (N is a subset of Z)
R ⊃ Q (R contains Q).

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Unions and intersections

Definition 1.2
I The union of two sets A and B is the set of objects that are
in at least one of A or B. We write A ∪ B for the union of A
and B.
I The intersection of two sets A and B is the set of objects
that are in both A or B. We write A ∩ B for the intersection
of A and B.
I The relative complement of a set A in a set B is the set of
objects which are in B but are not in A. We write B\A for
the complement of A in B.

Example 1.6
If A is the set of all positive numbers and B is the set of all
integers, then A ∩ B is the set of all positive integers, A ∪ B is
the set of all numbers which are either integers or positive (or
both!), and B\A is the set of all integers which are not positive.
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Intervals
If a < b are two real numbers, we write
(a, b) for {x ∈ R : a < x < b} — an open interval
[a, b] {x ∈ R : a ≤ x ≤ b} — a closed interval
(a, b] {x ∈ R : a < x ≤ b}
[a, b) {x ∈ R : a ≤ x < b}
[a, ∞) {x ∈ R : a ≤ x}
(−∞, a] {x ∈ R : x ≤ a}
(a, ∞) {x ∈ R : a < x}
(−∞, a) {x ∈ R : x < a}

Note
∞ is not a number. The only sensible relations involving ∞ and a
number x are
−∞ < x or x < ∞.
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Inequalities

Theorem 1.1
For x, y , z ∈ R we have
1. if x > y then x + z > y + z
2. if x > y and z > 0 then xz > yz
3. if x > y and z < 0 then xz < yz
√ √
4. if y > x > 0 then y > x > 0
1 1
5. if y > x > 0 then 0 < <
y x

Note
Note the change of direction in (3) and (5).

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Solving inequalities
There are 2 basic types:
I polynomial inequalities
I linear inequalities
I quadratic inequalities
I maybe higher degree inequalities if easy
I rational function inequalities — which will usually reduce to
polynomial inequalities

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!

Example 1.7
Find S = {x ∈ R : 3(4 − x) < 21}.

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!

Example 1.8
Find T = {u ∈ R : u 3 − 3u > 2u 2 }.

15
!

Example 1.9
Find the set of all x ∈ R satisfying

1 1
> .
(x − 1)(x − 2) (x − 1)(x − 3)

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Absolute values

Definition 1.3
The absolute value |x| of a real number x is defined by
(
x if x ≥ 0
|x| =
−x if x < 0.

Theorem 1.2
I | − x| = |x|
I |xy | = |x| |y |
I |x ± y | ≤ |x| + |y | (the triangle inequality)
I |x| − |y | ≤ |x − y | (the circle inequality)

You have to be careful with problems with absolute values!

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Important facts

I If x, y ∈ R then |x − y | is the distance between x and y on

the real number line.

I If x ∈ R then
√
x 2 = |x| and |x|2 = x 2 .
I If a > 0 then
I |x| < a means −a < x < a;
equivalently, we can write x ∈ (−a, a)
I |x − x0 | < a means x0 − a < x < x0 + a;
equivalently, we can write x ∈ (x0 − a, x0 + a)
I |x| > a means (x < −a or x > a).

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Functions, domain and codomain

Definition 1.4
A function
f :A→B
is a rule which assigns every element x ∈ A to exactly one
element f (x) ∈ B.
The set A is called the domain of the function f , and the set B is
called the codomain of f .
While every element x in A must have an assignment y in B,
but there may be elements y in B which are not an assignment
of any element x in A.

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Range

Definition 1.5
The range of a function f : A → B, denoted by Range(f ) or
f (A), is the set

{y ∈ B : y = f (x) for some x ∈ A}.

Notes
I The range is a subset of the codomain.
f (A) is a subset of B.
I The codomain indicates where we should look for the
function values — the range tells us the actual function
values obtained.

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!

Example 1.10
I f : R → R with x 7→ 1 has f (R) ∈

I g : Z → R with n 7→ cos(nπ) has g(Z) ∈

I h : R → R with x 7→ cos(xπ) has h(R) ∈

I F : (0, 1] → R with x 7→ 1/x has F ((0, 1]) ∈

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Operations on functions

Definition 1.6
Suppose that f : D → R and g : D → R are two functions with
the same domain D.
Then the functions f ± g, f · g and f /g are defined by the rules

(f ± g)(x) = f (x) ± g(x) ∀x ∈ D

(f · g)(x) = f (x)g(x) ∀x ∈ D
f (x)
(f /g)(x) = ∀x ∈ D satisfying g(x) 6= 0.
g(x)

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Polynomials and rational functions

I Polynomials are functions of the form

p(x) = a0 + a1 x + a2 x 2 + · · · + an x n

where a0 , . . . , an ∈ R.
Their domain is R.
I Rational functions are functions of the form
p(x)
q(x)

where p and q are polynomials.

Their domain is {x ∈ R : q(x) 6= 0}.

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!

Example 1.11
Find the domains of the functions defined by these rules

2x x 3 + 5x − 7
f (x) = and g(x) = .
x2 + 3 x 2 − 4x + 3

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!

Example 1.12
Does the following rule defines a rational function?

2
f (x) = x + 1 − .
x2 +2

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Composition of functions

Definition 1.7
Consider two functions: f : C → D and g : A → B.
When the range of a function g is a subset of the domain of a
function f , we can define the composition f ◦ g : A → D is
defined by

(f ◦ g)(x) = f g(x) ∀x ∈ A.
Note the order of f and g is important!
f g

1111111
0000000
0000000
1111111
g B
0000000
1111111
0000000
1111111
111111
000000
000000
111111
000000
111111
1111
0000
0000
1111
0000
1111
0000000
1111111
0000000
1111111
000000
111111
000000
111111
000000
111111
000000
111111
0000
1111
0000
1111
0000
1111
0000000
1111111 000000
111111
000000
111111
0000000
1111111
A
0000000
1111111
000000
111111
000000
111111 D
C
f
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Example 1.13
If f : R → R and g : R → R are defined by

f (x) = sin x and g(x) = x + 1.

then


(f ◦ g)(x) = f g(x) = f (x + 1) = sin(x + 1).


(g ◦ f )(x) = g f (x) = g(sin x) = sin x + 1.

In this case both compositions make sense.

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Example 1.14
Let f : R → R and g : [0, ∞) → R be defined by
√
f (x) = x 2 − 1 and g(x) = x.

In this case f ◦ g makes sense:

√ √
(f ◦ g)(x) = f (g(x)) = f ( x) = ( x)2 − 1 = x − 1.

However, g ◦ f does not make sense.

√
For example, if x = 0 then f (x) = −1 and thus g (f (x)) = −1
is not defined.
In general, the composition f ◦ g is defined if the range of g is
contained in the domain of f .

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 2
√the range of f = x − 1 is not a subset of the
We can see that
domain of g = x.

However, if we restrict the domain of f so that f : D → R where

D = {x ∈ R : x 2 − 1 ≥ 0} = {x ∈ R : x ≤ −1 or x ≥ 1}

then g ◦ f : D → R is defined by
p
(g ◦ f )(x) = g(x 2 − 1) = x 2 − 1.

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Trigonometric functions

(cos t , sin t ) If t is a real number then (cos t, sin t)

are the coordinates of the point on the
unit circle x 2 + y 2 = 1 whose distance
t around the circle in the anticlockwise
1 direction from (1, 0) is t.

The angle from the positive x-axis to

this point is t radians.
So 2π radians is same angle as 360◦ .

From now on always measure angles in radians.

From the diagram we have

sin t ≤ t for t ≥ 0.

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Graphs of functions
We can represent a function of real numbers by a
two-dimensional graph, with the horizontal x-axis
corresponding to the input values and the vertical y -axis
corresponding to the output values.

Later in the semester we will learn how to apply calculus

techniques to sketch graphs. For now we can sometimes figure
out some basic properties of graphs by plotting a few points,
looking at behavior for large/small values of x, or reducing the
function to a simpler one.
Example 1.15
1
Graph the functions f (x) = |x 2 − 4| and f (x) = x 2 +4
.

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Graphs of sine and cosine
y sin(t)
1 1

y0 y0

t0
x t
t0
-1 x0 1 p/2 p 3p/2 2p 5p/2 3p 7p/2 4p

-1 -1
-1

cos(t)
x0
1
t0
p/2
p
3p/2 2p 5p/2 3p 7p/2 4p
t

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Domains and ranges of trigonometric functions
I The sine and cosine functions
Dom(sin) = Dom(cos) = R
Range(sin) = Range(cos) = [−1, 1].
I Other trigonometric functions
sin x π
tan x = , Dom(tan) = {x ∈ R : x 6= + k π, k ∈ Z},
cos x 2
Range(tan) = R
1 π
sec x = , Dom(sec) = {x ∈ R : x 6= + k π, k ∈ Z},
cos x 2
Range(sec) = {x ∈ R : x ≤ −1 or x ≥ 1}
1
cosec x = , Dom(cosec) = {x ∈ R : x 6= k π, k ∈ Z},
sin x
Range(cosec) = {x ∈ R : x ≤ −1 or x ≥ 1}
cos x
cot x = , Dom(cot) = {x ∈ R : x 6= k π, k ∈ Z},
sin x
Range(cot) = R
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Elementary functions
The following are known as elementary functions:
I polynomials
I the nth root function f (x) = x 1/n where n ∈ Z+
I the exponential function f (x) = ex
I the natural logarithm function f (x) = ln x
I the absolute value function f (x) = |x|
I all the trig functions (and their inverses) where you can use
high school definitions for the moment!
Any function obtained by combining the above functions via +,
−, ∗, ÷ and ◦ is also an elementary function.

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!

Example 1.16
The function
2
x+3 sin x−1
f :R→R such that x 7→ esin

is an elementary function.

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Implicitly defined functions
The points (x, y ) in the plane satisfying the equation

x − y2 = 0 (1)

define a curve in the plane.

By restricting the values of y , we can now define a function.

For example, if we impose the condition y ≤ −1, then we obtain

the function
√
y = f (x) = − x where f : [1, ∞) → (−∞, −1]

We say that f is implicitly defined by (1).

What is another example of a function defined implicitly by (1)?

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Continuous functions
The basic idea of continuity is

“a function is continuous if its graph can be drawn with-

out lifting the pencil off the page”
However, making this precise is tricky!

To formally define continuity, we will need to introduce the idea

of a limit.

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