Algebra Trigonometry Problems

© 2006 Paul Dawkins http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/terms.aspx
1
Algebra
Exponents
Simplify each of the following as much as possible.
1.
1 3
4 3 19 3 4
2x y x y y
-
- -
+
2.
3 1
2
5 2
x x x
-
3.
1
3
5
2
xx
x
-
4.
3
4
2 6
5
2x x y
x y
-
-
æ ö
ç ÷
ç ÷
+
ç ÷
è ø
5.
0
4 10
9 1
2 9
7 3
2 2
1
x x x x x x
x
-
-
æ ö
-
ç ÷
ç ÷
+
ç ÷
è ø
Absolute Value
1. Evaluate 5 and 123
-
2. Eliminate the absolute value bars from 3 8x
-
3. List as many of the properties of absolute value as you can.

2
Radicals
Evaluate the following.
1. 3
125
2. 6
64
3. 5
243
-
4. 2
100
5. 4
16
-
Convert each of the following to exponential form.
6. 7x
7. 5 2
x
8. 3
4 8
x +
Simplify each of the following.
9. 6 13
3
16x y Assume that 0
x ³ and 0
y ³ for this problem.
10. 8 15
4
16x y
Rationalizing
Rationalize each of the following.
1.
3xy
x y
+

3
2. 2
2 2
4
t
t
+ -
-
Functions
1. Given ( ) 2
6 11
f x x x
= - + - and ( ) 4 3
g x x
= - find each of the following.
(a) ( )
2
f (b) ( )
2
g (c) ( )
3
f - (d) ( )
10
g
(e) ( )
f t (f) ( )
3
f t - (g) ( )
3
f x - (h) ( )
4 1
f x -
2. Given ( ) 10
f x = find each of the following.
(a) ( )
7
f (b) ( )
0
f (c) ( )
14
f -
3. Given ( ) 2
3 10
f x x x
= - + and ( ) 1 20
g x x
= - find each of the following.
(a) ( )( )
f g x
- (b) ( )
f
x
g
æ ö
ç ÷
è ø
(c) ( )( )
fg x
(d) ( )( )
5
f g
o (e) ( )( )
f g x
o (f) ( )( )
g f x
o
Multiplying Polynomials
Multiply each of the following.
1. ( )( )
7 4 7 4
x x
- +
2. ( )2
2 5
x -
3. ( )
2
2 3
x +
4. ( )
3 2
2x x x
x
æ ö
- +
ç ÷
è ø
5. ( )( )
2
3 2 9 12
x x x
+ - +

4
Factoring
Factor each of the following as much as possible.
1. 2
100 81
x -
2. 2
100 81
x +
3. 2
3 13 10
x x
+ -
4. 2
25 10 1
x x
+ +
5. 5 4 3
4 8 32
x x x
- -
6. 3
125 8
x -
Simplifying Rational Expressions
Simplify each of the following rational expressions.
1.
2
2
2 8
4 4
x
x x
-
- +
2.
2
2
5 6
6
x x
x x
- -
-
Graphing and Common Graphs
Sketch the graph of each of the following.
1.
2
3
5
y x
= - +
2. ( )2
3 1
y x
= + -
3. 2
2 3
y x x
= - + +
4. ( ) 2
2 3
f x x x
= - + +

5
5. 2
6 5
x y y
= - +
6. ( )2
2
5 4
x y
+ + =
7. 2 2
2 8 8 0
x x y y
+ + - + =
8.
( )
( )
2
2
2
4 2 1
9
x
y
-
+ + =
9.
( ) ( )
2 2
1 2
1
9 4
x y
+ -
- =
10. y x
=
11. 3
y x
=
12. y x
=
Solving Equations, Part I
Solve each of the following equations.
1. 3 2 2
3 21
x x x x
- = +
2. 2
3 16 1 0
x x
- + =
3. 2
8 21 0
x x
- + =
Solving Equations, Part II
Solve each of the following equations for y.
1.
2 5
6 7
y
x
y
-
=
-
2. ( )
2
3 3 5 sin 3 8
x y x xy
- + = +
3. 2 2
2 2 5
x y
+ =

6
Solving Systems of Equations
1. Solve the following system of equations. Interpret the solution.
2 2 3
3 1
5 4 3 10
x y z
x y z
x y z
- - = -
+ + = -
- + =
2. Determine where the following two curves intersect.
2 2
2
13
1
x y
y x
+ =
= -
3. Graph the following two curves and determine where they intersect.
2
4 8
5 28
x y y
x y
= - -
= +
Solving Inequalities
Solve each of the following inequalities.
1. 2
10 3
x x
- >
2. 4 3 2
4 12 0
x x x
+ - £
3. 2
3 2 11 0
x x
- - >
4.
3
0
2
x
x
-
³
+
5.
2
3 10
0
1
x x
x
- -
<
-
6.
2
3
1
x
x
³
+
Absolute Value Equations and Inequalities
Solve each of the following.
1. 3 8 2
x + =

7
2. 2 4 10
x - =
3. 1 15
x + = -
4. 7 10 4
x - £
5. 1 2 7
x
- <
6. 9 1
x - £ -
7. 4 5 3
x + >
8. 4 11 9
x
- ³
9. 10 1 4
x + > -
Trigonometry
Trig Function Evaluation
One of the problems with most trig classes is that they tend to concentrate on right
triangle trig and do everything in terms of degrees. Then you get to a calculus course
where almost everything is done in radians and the unit circle is a very useful tool.
So first off let’s look at the following table to relate degrees and radians.
Degree 0 30 45 60 90 180 270 360
Radians 0
6 4 3 2
3
2
2
Know this table! There are, of course, many other angles in radians that we’ll see during
this class, but most will relate back to these few angles. So, if you can deal with these
angles you will be able to deal with most of the others.
Be forewarned, everything in most calculus classes will be done in radians!
Now, let’s look at the unit circle. Below is the unit circle with just the first quadrant
filled in. The way the unit circle works is to draw a line from the center of the circle

8
outwards corresponding to a given angle. Then look at the coordinates of the point where
the line and the circle intersect. The first coordinate is the cosine of that angle and the
second coordinate is the sine of that angle. There are a couple of basic angles that are
commonly used. These are
3
0, , , , , , , and 2
6 4 3 2 2
and are shown below along
with the coordinates of the intersections. So, from the unit circle below we can see that
3
cos
6 2
æ ö
=
ç ÷
è ø
and
1
sin
6 2
æ ö
=
ç ÷
è ø
.
Remember how the signs of angles work. If you rotate in a counter clockwise direction
the angle is positive and if you rotate in a clockwise direction the angle is negative.
Recall as well that one complete revolution is 2 , so the positive x-axis can correspond
to either an angle of 0 or 2 (or 4 , or 6 , or 2
- , or 4
- , etc. depending on the
direction of rotation). Likewise, the angle
6
(to pick an angle completely at random)
can also be any of the following angles:
13
2
6 6
+ = (start at
6
then rotate once around counter clockwise)
25
4
6 6
+ = (start at
6
then rotate around twice counter clockwise)
11
2
6 6
- = - (start at
6
then rotate once around clockwise)

9
23
4
6 6
- = - (start at
6
then rotate around twice clockwise)
etc.
In fact
6
can be any of the following angles 2 , 0, 1, 2, 3,
6
n n
+ = ± ± ± K In this case
n is the number of complete revolutions you make around the unit circle starting at
6
.
Positive values of n correspond to counter clockwise rotations and negative values of n
correspond to clockwise rotations.
So, why did I only put in the first quadrant? The answer is simple. If you know the first
quadrant then you can get all the other quadrants from the first. You’ll see this in the
following examples.
Find the exact value of each of the following. In other words, don’t use a calculator.
10.
2
sin
3
æ ö
ç ÷
è ø
and
2
sin
3
æ ö
-
ç ÷
è ø
11.
7
cos
6
æ ö
ç ÷
è ø
and
7
cos
6
æ ö
-
ç ÷
è ø
12. tan
4
æ ö
-
ç ÷
è ø
and
7
tan
4
æ ö
ç ÷
è ø
13.
9
sin
4
æ ö
ç ÷
è ø
14.
25
sec
6
æ ö
ç ÷
è ø
15.
4
tan
3
æ ö
ç ÷
è ø
Trig Evaluation Final Thoughts
As we saw in the previous examples if you know the first quadrant of the unit circle you
can find the value of ANY trig function (not just sine and cosine) for ANY angle that can
be related back to one of those shown in the first quadrant. This is a nice idea to
remember as it means that you only need to memorize the first quadrant and how to get
the angles in the remaining three quadrants!

10
In these problems I used only “basic” angles, but many of the ideas here can also be
applied to angles other than these “basic” angles as we’ll see in Solving Trig Equations.
Graphs of Trig Functions
There is not a whole lot to this section. It is here just to remind you of the graphs of the
six trig functions as well as a couple of nice properties about trig functions.
Before jumping into the problems remember we saw in the Trig Function Evaluation
section that trig functions are examples of periodic functions. This means that all we
really need to do is graph the function for one periods length of values then repeat the
graph.
Graph the following function.
1. ( )
cos
y x
=
2. ( )
cos 2
y x
=
3. ( )
5cos 2
y x
=
4. ( )
sin
y x
=
5. sin
3
x
y
æ ö
= ç ÷
è ø
6. ( )
tan
y x
=
7. ( )
sec
y x
=
8. ( )
csc
y x
=
9. ( )
cot
y x
=

11
Trig Formulas
This is not a complete list of trig formulas. This is just a list of formulas that I’ve found
to be the most useful in a Calculus class. For a complete listing of trig formulas you can
download my Trig Cheat Sheet.
Complete the following formulas.
1. ( ) ( )
2 2
sin cos
+ =
2. ( )
2
tan 1
+ =
3. ( )
sin 2t =
4. ( )
cos 2x = (Three possible formulas)
5. 2
cos ( )
x = (In terms of cosine to the first power)
6. 2
sin ( )
x = (In terms of cosine to the first power)
Solving Trig Equations
Solve the following trig equations. For those without intervals listed find ALL possible
solutions. For those with intervals listed find only the solutions that fall in those
intervals.
1. ( )
2cos 3
t =
2. ( )
2cos 3
t = on [ 2 ,2 ]
-
3. ( )
2sin 5 3
x = -
4. ( )
2sin 5 4 3
x + = -
5. ( )
2sin 3 1
x = on [ ]
,
-
6. ( )
sin 4 1
t = on [0,2 ]

12
7. ( )
cos 3 2
x =
8. ( ) ( )
sin 2 cos 2
x x
= -
9. ( ) ( )
2sin cos 1
=
10. ( ) ( ) ( )
sin cos cos 0
w w w
+ =
11. ( ) ( )
2
2cos 3 5cos 3 3 0
x x
+ - =
12. ( )
5sin 2 1
x =
13. 4cos 3
5
x
æ ö
= -
ç ÷
è ø
14. ( )
10sin 2 7
x - = -
Inverse Trig Functions
One of the more common notations for inverse trig functions can be very confusing.
First, regardless of how you are used to dealing with exponentiation we tend to denote an
inverse trig function with an “exponent” of “-1”. In other words, the inverse cosine is
denoted as ( )
1
cos x
-
. It is important here to note that in this case the “-1” is NOT an
exponent and so,
( )
( )
1 1
cos
cos
x
x
-
¹ .
In inverse trig functions the “-1” looks like an exponent but it isn’t, it is simply a notation
that we use to denote the fact that we’re dealing with an inverse trig function. It is a
notation that we use in this case to denote inverse trig functions. If I had really wanted
exponentiation to denote 1 over cosine I would use the following.
( )
( ) ( )
1 1
cos
cos
x
x
-
=
There’s another notation for inverse trig functions that avoids this ambiguity. It is the
following.
( ) ( )
( ) ( )
( ) ( )
1
1
1
cos arccos
sin arcsin
tan arctan
x x
x x
x x
-
-
-
=
=
=

13
So, be careful with the notation for inverse trig functions!
There are, of course, similar inverse functions for the remaining three trig functions, but
these are the main three that you’ll see in a calculus class so I’m going to concentrate on
them.
To evaluate inverse trig functions remember that the following statements are equivalent.
( ) ( )
( ) ( )
( ) ( )
1
1
1
cos cos
sin sin
tan tan
x x
x x
x x
-
-
-
= Û =
= Û =
= Û =
In other words, when we evaluate an inverse trig function we are asking what angle, ,
did we plug into the trig function (regular, not inverse!) to get x.
So, let’s do some problems to see how these work. Evaluate each of the following.
1. 1 3
cos
2
-
æ ö
ç ÷
ç ÷
è ø
2. 1 3
cos
2
-
æ ö
-
ç ÷
ç ÷
è ø
3. 1 1
sin
2
- æ ö
-
ç ÷
è ø
4. ( )
1
tan 1
-
5. 1 3
cos cos
2
-
æ ö
æ ö
ç ÷
ç ÷
ç ÷
ç ÷
è ø
è ø
6. 1
sin sin
4
- æ ö
æ ö
ç ÷
ç ÷
è ø
è ø
7. ( )
( )
1
tan tan 4
-
- .

14
Exponentials / Logarithms
Basic Exponential Functions
First, let’s recall that for 0
b > and 1
b ¹ an exponential function is any function that is in
the form
( ) x
f x b
=
We require 1
b ¹ to avoid the following situation,
( ) 1 1
x
f x = =
So, if we allowed 1
b ¹ we would just get the constant function, 1.
We require 0
b > to avoid the following situation,
( ) ( ) ( )
1
2
1
4 4 4
2
x
f x f
æ ö
= - Þ = - = -
ç ÷
è ø
By requiring 0
b > we don’t have to worry about the possibility of square roots of
negative numbers.
1. Evaluate ( ) 4x
f x = , ( )
1
4
x
g x
æ ö
= ç ÷
è ø
and ( ) 4 x
h x -
= at 2, 1,0,1,2
x = - - .
2. Sketch the graph of ( ) 4x
f x = , ( )
1
4
x
g x
æ ö
= ç ÷
è ø
and ( ) 4 x
h x -
= on the same axis system.
3. List as some basic properties for ( ) x
f x b
= .
4. Evaluate ( ) x
f x = e , ( ) x
g x -
= e and ( ) 1 3
5 x
h x -
= e at 2, 1,0,1,2
x = - - .
5. Sketch the graph of ( ) x
f x = e and ( ) x
g x -
= e .
Basic Logarithmic Functions
1. Without a calculator give the exact value of each of the following logarithms.
(a) 2
log 16 (b) 4
log 16 (c) 5
log 625
(d) 9
1
log
531441
(e) 1
6
log 36 (f) 3
2
27
log
8
2. Without a calculator give the exact value of each of the following logarithms.
(a) 3
ln e (b) log1000 (c) 16
log 16

15
(d) 23
log 1 (e) 7
2
log 32
Logarithm Properties
Complete the following formulas.
1. logb b =
2. log 1
b =
3. log x
b b =
4. logb x
b =
5. logb xy =
6. logb
x
y
æ ö
=
ç ÷
è ø
7. ( )
log r
b x =
8. Write down the change of base formula for logarithms.
9. What is the domain of a logarithm?
10. Sketch the graph of ( ) ( )
ln
f x x
= and ( ) ( )
log
g x x
= .
Simplifying Logarithms
Simplify each of the following logarithms.
1. 3 4 5
ln x y z
2.
4
3
9
log
x
y
æ ö
ç ÷
ç ÷
è ø

16
3.
( )
2 2
3
log
x y
x y
æ ö
+
ç ÷
ç ÷
-
è ø
Solving Exponential Equations
In each of the equations in this section the problem is there is a variable in the exponent.
In order to solve these we will need to get the variable out of the exponent. This means
using Property 3 and/or 7 from the Logarithm Properties section above. In most cases it
will be easier to use Property 3 if possible. So, pick an appropriate logarithm and take the
log of both sides, then use Property 3 (or Property 7) where appropriate to simplify. Note
that often some simplification will need to be done before taking the logs.
1. 4 2
2 9
x-
=
e
2.
2
10 100
t t
-
=
3. 1 3
7 15 10
z
-
+ =
e
4. 5 2
0
x
x x +
- =
e
Solving Logarithm Equations
Solving logarithm equations are similar to exponential equations. First, we isolate the
logarithm on one side by itself with a coefficient of one. Then we use Property 4 from
the Logarithm Properties section with an appropriate choice of b. In choosing the
appropriate b, we need to remember that the b MUST match the base on the logarithm!
1. ( )
4log 1 5 2
x
- =
2. 3 2ln 3 4
7
x
æ ö
+ + = -
ç ÷
è ø

17
3. ( ) ( )
2ln ln 1 2
x x
- - =
4. ( )
log log 3 1
x x
+ - =

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