THE CHINESE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG

Department of Mathematics
MATH1020 General Mathematics (Fall 2017)
Coursework 1 (Take-home)

Name: Student No.:

Class: Final Result:

I acknowledge that I am aware of University policy and regulations on honesty

in academic work, and of the disciplinary guidelines and procedures applica-
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Signature Date

Please attempt to solve all the problems as exercises. This coursework will not be graded.
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1. Answer the following questions:

(a) Assume that all radicands represent non-negative real numbers. Simplify each
expression by removing as many as factors as possible from under the radical.

p3 3 8 9
a2 b
(i) x 64x y z ; (ii) .
ab1

(b) Simplify m2 4m + 4, if possible. (Hint: Consider the cases m 2 and
m < 2 separately.)
(c) Assume all radicands are positive and denominators are non-zero. Simplify
each expression by rationalizing the denominator:
3 1
(i) ; (ii) ;
1+ 2
r 3
s3 s+ s+3
(iii) ; (iv) .
s9 s s+3
(d) Find the domain of each function:
1 1
(i) f (x) = ; (ii) f (x) = ;
x+4 3
x1
7x x+4
(iii) f (x) = ; (iv) f (x) = 2 .
4x x + 3x + 2
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2. Answer the following questions:

(a) Write each union as a single interval.

(i) (, 3) (5, ); (ii) (, 10] (, 8].

(b) Write each intersection as a single interval.

(i) (, 3) [5, ); (ii) [20, 10] (, 8].

(c) Write each set as an interval or as a union of two intervals.

1

(i) x| |x 4| < 10 ; (ii) {x| |2x 3| 4} ;
2
(iii) {x| x + 4x > 3} .
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3. Consider the function (

1, if x < 1;
f (x) =
2x 3, if x 1.

(a) Sketch the graph of f (x) for 4 x 4.

(b) Evaluate and simplify each of the following expressions.

(i) f (1); (ii) f (2);

(iii) f (1 + ) where  > 0; (iv) f (1 + ) where  < 0;
(v) f (|x| + 2).
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4. Recall that (
x, if x 0;
|x| =
x, if x < 0.
Graph the following functions:

(a) f (x) = 3|2x + 6| 4;

(b) f (x) = |x2 3x + 2|;
x1
(c) f (x) = .
|x + 1|
x1 2
(Hint : Sketch the graph of y = =1 first.)
x+1 x+1
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5. You are given the following formulas and special values

sin2 A + cos2 A = 1
sin(A + B) = sin A cos B + cos A sin B
cos(A + B) = cos A cos B sin A sin B

2
sin 45 = cos 45 =
2
1
sin 30 =
2

3
cos 30 =
2
(a) By putting A = 45 , B = 30 in the formulas above, find the value of sin 75 .
(b) By putting A = B = x, show that cos 2x = 1 2 sin2 x.
(c) By putting A = x, B = 2x, show that sin 3x = 3 sin x 4 sin3 x.
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6. (Optional) Consider the function f (x) = x2 + 1. In this exercise, we will estimate

the area under the graph of f (x) for 0 x 3, that is, the area of the shaded
region bounded by the curve y = f (x) and the lines y = 0, x = 0 and x = 3 in
Figure 1. This can be done by approximating the region using rectangles.

Figure 1: Graph of f (x).

(a) In Figure 2(a), the horizontal interval [0,3] is divided into 3 equal segments. A
rectangle is drawn above each of these segments as shown. What is the total
area of the rectangles?
(b) In Figure 2(b), the horizontal interval [0,3] is divided into 6 equal segments
and 6 rectangles are drawn. What is the total area of these 6 rectangles?

(a) 3 rectangles (b) 6 rectangles

Figure 2: Area Estimate by rectangles.

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(c) Which answer in part (a) and (b) is a better estimate of the area under the
graph of f (x) for 0 x 3? Are the estimates greater or smaller than the
actual area under the graph of f (x)?
(d) (More difficult) Suppose the horizontal intervals [0,3] is divided into n equal
segments and n rectangles are drawn similarly as in part (a) and (b). Show
that the total area of these n rectangles is

9n(n 1)(2n 1)
+ 3.
2n3
The following identities may be useful:

n(n + 1)
1 + 2 + ... + n = ;
2
n(n + 1)(2n + 1)
12 + 22 + . . . + n2 = .
6

7. (Optional) Find the average rate of change of f over the interval [a, x]; that is

f (x) f (a)
,
xa
for each function. Be sure to simplify.

(a) f (x) = x2 2x + 3;
(b) f (x) = x3 ;
3
(c) f (x) = ;
1x

(d) f (x) = x + 4.
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8. (Optional) Figure 3 shows the graphs of each of the six basic trigonometric functions.

1.5
1
1
0.5
y

y
0
0.5
1 1
1.5
2pi 3pi/2 pi pi/2 0 pi/2 pi 3pi/2 2pi 5pi/2 2pi 3pi/2 pi pi/2 0 pi/2 pi 3pi/2 2pi 5pi/2

x (radians) x (radians)

(a) y = sin (x) (b) y = cos (x)

5 5

4 4

3 3

2 2

1 1
y

y
0

1 1

2 2

3 3

4 4

5 5
3pi/2 pi pi/2 0 pi/2 pi 3pi/2 2pi 3pi/2 pi pi/2 0 pi/2 pi 3pi/2 2pi
x (radians) x (radians)

(c) y = tan (x) (d) y = cot (x) = 1/ tan (x)

5 5

4 4

3 3

2 2

1 1
y

0
y

1 1

2 2

3 3

4 4

5 5
3pi/2 pi pi/2 0 pi/2 pi 3pi/2 2pi 3pi/2 pi pi/2 0 pi/2 pi 3pi/2 2pi
x (radians) x (radians)

(e) y = sec (x) = 1/ cos (x) (f) y = cosec (x) = 1/ sin (x)

Figure 3: Six trigonometric functions with restricted domains.

The period of each trigonometric function is the length of each cycle, that is, the
period is the horizontal distance between any point on the curve and the next
corresponding point in the next cycle where the graph starts to repeat itself.
The amplitude of the sine and cosine function is one-half the distance difference
between the maximum and minimum values of the function. Here are graphing
facts and relationships for the six trigonometric functions.
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y= a sin (bx + c) amplitude = |a|

2 y= a cos (bx + c) amplitude = |a|
period = :
b
y= a sec (bx + c)


y= a cosec (bx + c)
(
y = a tan (bx + c)
period = :
b y = a cot (bx + c)

Answer the following questions:

(a) Graph y = 2 sin (12x) by hand;

1 x
(b) Graph y = cos by hand;
3 4
 
(c) Graph y = sin 3x by hand;
2
 
(d) Graph y = tan 3x by hand.
2
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9. (Optional) Let us study the so-called cardinal sine function. The standard sinc x
function without normalization is defined by

sin x
x 6= 0;
sinc x = x
1 x = 0,

as illustrated in Figure 4.
1.5

0.5
y

0.5

1.5
5pi 4pi 3pi 2pi pi 0 pi 2pi 3pi 4pi 5pi
x

Figure 4: The standard sinc function without normization.

Find the zero crossing points of the normalized sinc function:

sin x
x 6= 0;
sinc x = x
1 x = 0.