Answers to Term Test Study Guide Problems

This document contains sample answers to the Term Test Study Guide Problems. It only includes answers
rather than complete solutions; you will be required to show your work for similar questions on the Term
Test. See the Practice Term Test for examples of the explanations that are required.

1. The table below gives several values of a continuous, invertible function p(x). Assume that the domain
of both p(x) and p0 (x) is the interval (−∞, ∞).

x 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24
p(x) -11.5 -9.5 -2 0.5 6 7 13 14 31

(a) Compute the average rate of change of p on the interval 6 ≤ x ≤ 21. 16/5
(b) Approximate p0 (7). 5/6
(c) Suppose that p0 (0) = 2. Use a linear approximation to estimate p(1). -9.5
(d) Let q(x) = p−1 (x). Estimate q 0 (3). 6/11

2. A portion of the graph of a very unusual function f is shown below.

Also suppose that g(x) = x2 .

3f (u)
(a) Evaluate limu→2 . 9/4
g(u)
(b) Find all real numbers c in the interval 0 ≤ c ≤ 10 such that limx→c+ f (x) = f (c) and f is not
continuous at c. If there are no such values of c, write NONE EXIST. 3

3. Let d(t) be the distance in feet that a roller coaster moves along the track t seconds after the ride
begins. The entire ride lasts exactly 60 seconds. Several values of d(t) are shown in the following table.

t 0 10 25 30 40 45 55 60
d(t) 0 401 1056 1366 1817 2189 2816 3102

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 (a) Find the average velocity of the roller coaster over the last 15 seconds of the ride. approximately
60.87 ft/s
(b) Estimate d0 (55). between 57.2 and 62.7 ft/s are reasonable estimates
(c) Let h(t) be the height, in feet, above the ground of a rider in the front seat of the roller coaster t
seconds after the ride begins. A graph of h(t) is shown below. III, V, I, IV¡ II

The quantities I-V are defined as follows:

I. The number 0
II. The instantaneous vertical velocity of the rider, in ft/sec, at t = 7.
III. The instantaneous vertical velocity of the rider, in ft/sec, at t = 18.5.
IV. The average vertical velocity of the rider, in ft/sec, between t = 7 and t = 40.
V. h0 (49).
Rank the quantities (I)-(V) in order from least to greatest. No explanation is necessary.

4. Consider the piecewise function

( 3
e + 5eq +c q<2
L(q) :=
6e ln(e + q − 2) q ≥ 2

where c is a constant.
Use the limit definition of the derivative to write an expression for L0 (−10). Your answer should not
involve an L, and you should not attempt to evaluate or simplify the limit.
3 3
e + 5e(−10+h) +c
− e − 5e−10 +c
lim
h→0 h

5. The Canadian is a train that goes directly from Toronto to Vancouver. The entire trip is 4,466 km
and takes approximately three and a half days. Let C(t) be the distance (in km) of the Canadian from
Toronto t hours after a particular ride begins. Assume that the function C is increasing and invertible.
Some values for C(t) during the first part of the trip are given in the following table

t 0 3 5 6.5 10 12 16 28
C(t) 0 195 356 449 680 812 1152 2276

(a) Estimate the instantaneous velocity of the Canadian 6 hours after the ride begins. 62 km/h
(b) Suppose that (C −1 )0 (800) = k, where k is some constant. Using the data in the table above, find
the best possible estimate for k. Be sure to show your work. 1/66 h/km
(c) In interpreting the equation (C −1 )0 (800) = k, what are the units of 800 and k? km and h/km,
respectively

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 (d) Let R(t) be the total snowfall (in cm) at Toronto’s Union Station during the first t hours of the
train ride. Express the following statement with a single mathematical equation: “Over the first
100 km of the Canadian’s ride, it snowed 2 cm at Union Station.”

R(C −1 (100)) = 2

6. Harlow Shapley was an astronomer and director of the Harvard College Observatory from 1921 to 1952.
He became fascinated with ants (yes, the insects!) when visiting an observatory in South America, and
conducted a number of experiments with them.
Suppose that Shapley begins his observations of a group of ants at noon, and five minutes after he
begins, there are 5 ants. More ants continue to arrive, and he determines that the number of ants is
increasing by 5% each minutes. Find a formula for the function A(t) that models the number of ants
present at the picnic t minutes past noon for t ≥ 5. A(t) = 5(1.05)t−5
7. The graph of a function f is shown below.

Use the graph above to evaluate each of the expressions below. If any of the quantities do not exist,
write DNE. You should assume that pieces of the function that appear to be straight lines are linear.

(a)
lim f (x)
x→5

3
(b)
f (p)
lim
p→0.5 p
9
(c)
f (3.3 + h) − f (3.3)
lim
h→0 h
f 0 (3.3) = 2
(d)
lim f (t)f (t + 2)
t→3

DNE

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 (e)
lim f (r)
r→6−

3
(f)
lim f (2)
x→3

8. Duncan is giving his son a bath in a baby bath that sits inside of a larger tub. Suppose that the baby
bath takes exactly 1.8 minutes to fill up. After a 10 minute bath, Duncan takes out the plug in the
bottom and it takes exactly 1 minute to empty. Due to water pressure, the water drains more quickly
at first than it does in the end. Suppose that W = g(t) gives the amount of water in gallons in the
baby bath t minutes after he begins to fill it.

(a) For which values of a between 0 and 15 is the quantity g 0 (a) positive? Negative? Zero? positive:
0 < t < 1.8; negative: 11.8 < t < 12.8; zero: 1.8 < t < 11.8 and 12.8 < t < 15
(b) Suppose that the tangent line to the graph of W = g(t) at t = 12 passes through (11, 5) and
(12.5, 0). Find g 0 (12). What are the units of g 0 (12)? −10/3 gallons / minute
(c) Use your answers above to estimate g(11.5). Clearly show where all of your numbers and calcu-
lations come from. 10/3 gallons

9. Suppose that f (t) represents the pounds of recycled materials that a truck picks up t hours after the
beginning of its shift at 9:00 a.m. Interpret each of the following mathematical statements in practical
terms. Do not use the word ‘instantaneous’ or the phrase ‘rate of change’ (e.g. your answer should be
meaningful to a 12-year-old).

(a) f (1) = 10 Between 9 and 10 am the truck picked up 10 pounds of recycled material
(b) f −1 (3) = 0.5 It took the truck half an hour to pick up 3 pounds of recycled material at the
beginning of its shift
(c) f 0 (3) = 15 Between noon and 1 pm, the truck picked up approximately 15 pounds of recycled
material.
(d) (f −1 )0 (26) = 0.1 When the truck picked up 26 pounds of recycled material, it took approximately
0.1 hours for it to pick up the next pound of material.
(e) Do you expect that there is a number a such that f 0 (a) < 0? Carefully explain your answer. No
- f is an increasing function
10. Curtis is pumping air into his exercise ball. At one point in this process, his pump becomes discon-
nected, so he tries to use a different pump the following graph shows the volume of air in the ball vs.
time. Let V = h(t) be the volume of the ball t minutes after he starts blowing it up.

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 (a) At what time(s) between t = 0 and t = 14 is the volume the greatest? t = 14
(b) For what a is h0 (a) negative? for a between 5 and 7
(c) At what time(s) is the volume of the ball increasing the fastest? just after t = 7
(d) At what time(s) is the volume of the ball decreasing the fastest? between t = 5 and 5 = 7
(e) Is h(t) invertible? Is it continuous? it is continuous but is not invertible

11. Let C(t) be the amount of heroin in metric tons traded in the US t years after 2000. Interpret each of
the following mathematical statements in practical terms. Do not use the word ‘instantaneous’ or the
phrase ‘rate of change’ (e.g. your answer should be meaningful to a 12-year-old).
(a) C(0) = 22 In 2000, 22 metric tons of heroin were traded in the US
(b) C −1 (31) = 9 In the year 2009, 31 metric tons of heroin were traded in the US
(c) C 0 (0) = 3 We expect that approximately 3 metric tons more of heroin was traded in the US In
2001 than was traded in 2000
(d) (C −1 )0 (30) = 0.5 In the year where there were 30 metric tons of heroin traded in the US it took
approximately half a year for the yearly trade to reach 31 metric tons
12. Are the following statements true or false? If the statement is true, explain why. If it is false, give an
example to show that it is false.
f (x)
(a) There are functions f and g with limx→∞ f (x) = 0 and limx→∞ g(x) = 0 such that limx→∞ =
g(x)
5. true (f (x) = 1/x and g(x) = 1/5x, for example)
f (x)
(b) There are functions f and g with limx→∞ f (x) = 0 and limx→∞ g(x) = 0 such that limx→∞ =
g(x)
0. true (g(x) = x2 and f (x) = x, for example)
(c) Suppose that f (−1) = −1 and f (1) = 1. Then for all x within −1 ≤ x ≤ 1, −1 ≤ f (x) ≤ 1. false
|x − 8|
(d) limx→7 is equal to −1. true
x−8
x2 − 4
13. Suppose that h(x) = and that f (x) is given by the graph below. Compute the following limits,
x−2
or state why they do not exist.

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 (a) limx→2 h(x) − f (x) does not exist
(b) limx→2+ h(x) − f (x) 4
f (x)
(c) limx→0 1/4
h(x)
5h(x)
(d) limx→0 20
f (x)
(e) limx→∞ h(x) ∞
(f) limx→3 x2 h(x) 45

14. After a drug is administered, the concentration of drug in a patient’s body changes over time.1 Let
C(t) be the concentration of an antibiotic measured in mg/L in a particular 20-year-old female t hours
after the drug is administered.
(a) What are the units of C 0 (8)? mg/(litre-hour)
(b) Suppose that C 0 (8) = 5 and that C(8) = 10. Write the equation of the line that most closely
approximates C(t) for times near t = 8. C(t) ≈ 5(t − 8) + 10
(c) What do you expect the concentration to be when t = 9? Justify your answer. 15 mg/L

15. Coffee is being poured at a constant rate into an unusually shaped coffee cup, shown below. Let h be
the height of the coffee above the bottom of the cup, and let t be time from the beginning of the pour.
dh
Sketch graphs that show the shape of the graphs of h(t) and on the axes below.
dt

1 Understanding how the concentration of the drug changes is crucial in making decisions about when the next dosage should

be given, and can depend on factors such as the method of delivery and a patient’s age or weight. Studying how a drug and
body interact is known as pharmokinetics.

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16. Elizabeth is a student who started two small businesses
(a) Elizabeth’s first business, started in 2015, sells homemade brownie mixes. The profit during her
15th month of business was 50% higher than in her 3rd month of business. She predicts that her
profit is growing exponentially. If this assumption is true, in what month will her profit from the
brownie business be three times what it was in the first month? You can round your answer to
the nearest month. 32.5 months
(b) Elizabeth’s second business sells handmade beaded jewellery. She earned a total profit of $258
during her 2nd month of business and a total profit of $320 during her 4th month of business.
i. Based on the data for these two months, if the profit for Elizabeth’s jewellery business is
modelled by a linear function, what would the model predict her profit during her eighth
month of business to be? $444
ii. Based on the data for these two months, if the profit for Elizabeth’s jewellery business is
instead modelled by an exponential function, what would the model predict her profit during
her eighth month of business to be? $492.28
17. The effective potential energy, Ueff , of a sun-planet pair changes according to the distance r between
the planet and the sun. By convention, if Ueff is negative then there is an attraction between the sun
and the planet while if Ueff is positive then there is a repulsion between the sun and the planet. For
some sun-planet system, suppose that
3 1
Ueff = − + 2 , r>0
r r
(a) Give the equation for the horizontal asymptote for Ueff . Explain the physical significance of this
asymptote: that is, how does the planet’s attraction towards the sun change as r → ∞? Ueff = 0;
as the planet and the sun get far apart, the potential energy will go towards 0.
(b) Give the equation of the vertical asymptote of Ueff , and explain its physical significance.r = 0; as
the planet and the sun get closer together, the potential energy increases