Activity 9

OBJECTIVE MATERIAL REQUIRED

To find analytically the limit of a Paper, pencil, calculator.
function f (x) at x = c and also to check
the continuity of the function at that
point.

METHOD OF CONSTRUCTION

 x 2 – 16 
 , x ≠ 4
1. Consider the function given by f ( x) =  x – 4 
 10, x = 4 


2. Take some points on the left and some points on the right side of c (= 4)
which are very near to c.
3. Find the corresponding values of f (x) for each of the points considered in
step 2 above.
4. Record the values of points on the left and right side of c as x and the
corresponding values of f (x) in a form of a table.

DEMONSTRATION
1. The values of x and f (x) are recorded as follows:

Table 1 : For points on the left of c (= 4).

x 3.9 3.99 3.999 3.9999 3.99999 3.999999 3.9999999

f (x) 7.9 7.99 7.999 7.9999 7.99999 7.999999 7.9999999

 2. Table 2: For points on the right of c (= 4).

x 4.1 4.01 4.001 4.0001 4.00001 4.000001 4.0000001

f (x) 8.1 8.01 8.001 8.0001 8.00001 8.000001 8.0000001

OBSERVATION
1. The value of f (x) is approaching to ________, as x → 4 from the left.
2. The value of f (x) is approaching to ________, as x → 4 from the right.

3. So, lim f ( x ) = ________ and lim+ f ( x ) = ________.

x→ 4 x →4

4. Therefore, lim f ( x ) = ________ , f (4) = ________.

x →4

5. Is lim f ( x ) = f (4) ________ ? (Yes/No)

x →4

6. Since f ( c ) ≠ lim f ( x) , so, the function is ________ at x = 4 (continuous/

x →c
not continuous).

APPLICATION
This activity is useful in understanding the concept of limit and continuity of a
function at a point.

Mathematics 123
Activity 13
OBJECTIVE MATERIAL REQUIRED
To understand the concepts of Pieces of wire of different lengths,
decreasing and increasing functions. piece of plywood of suitable size,
white paper, adhesive, geometry
box, trigonometric tables.
METHOD OF CONSTRUCTION
1. Take a piece of plywood of a convenient size and paste a white paper on it.
2. Take two pieces of wires of length say 20 cm each and fix them on the white
paper to represent x-axis and y-axis.
3. Take two more pieces of wire each of suitable length and bend them in the
shape of curves representing two functions and fix them on the paper as
shown in the Fig. 13.

4. Take two straight wires each of suitable length for the purpose of showing
tangents to the curves at different points on them.

DEMONSTRATION
1. Take one straight wire and place it on the curve (on the left) such that it is
 tangent to the curve at the point say P1 and making an angle α1 with the
positive direction of x-axis.
2. α1 is an obtuse angle, so tanα1 is negative, i.e., the slope of the tangent at P1
(derivative of the function at P1) is negative.
3. Take another two points say P2 and P3 on the same curve, and make tangents,
using the same wire, at P2 and P3 making angles α2 and α3, respectively with
the positive direction of x-axis.
4. Here again α2 and α3 are obtuse angles and therefore slopes of the tangents
tan α2 and tan α3 are both negative, i.e., derivatives of the function at P2 and
P3 are negative.
5. The function given by the curve (on the left) is a decreasing function.
6. On the curve (on the right), take three point Q1, Q2, Q3, and using the other
straight wires, form tangents at each of these points making angles β1, β2,
β3, respectively with the positive direction of x-axis, as shown in the figure.
β1, β2, β3 are all acute angles.
So, the derivatives of the function at these points are positive. Thus, the
function given by this curve (on the right) is an increasing function.

OBSERVATION
1. α1 = _______ , > 90° α2 = _______ > _______, α3 = _______> _______,
tan α1 = _______, (negative) tan α2 = _______, ( _______ ), tan α3 =
_______, ( _______). Thus the function is _______.
2. β1 = _______< 90°, β2 = _______, < _______, β3 = _______ , < _______

tan β1 = _______ , (positive), tan β2 = _______, ( _______ ), tan β3 =

_______( _______ ). Thus, the function is _______.

APPLICATION
This activity may be useful in explaining the concepts of decreasing and
increasing functions.

Mathematics 133
Activity 14
OBJECTIVE MATERIAL REQUIRED
To understand the concepts of local A piece of plywood, wires,
maxima, local minima and point of adhesive, white paper.
inflection.

METHOD OF CONSTRUCTION
1. Take a piece of plywood of a convenient size and paste a white paper on it.
2. Take two pieces of wires each of length 40 cm and fix them on the paper on
plywood in the form of x-axis and y-axis.
3. Take another wire of suitable length and bend it in the shape of curve. Fix
this curved wire on the white paper pasted on plywood, as shown in Fig. 14.
 4. Take five more wires each of length say 2 cm and fix them at the points A, C,
B, P and D as shown in figure.

DEMONSTRATION
1. In the figure, wires at the points A, B, C and D represent tangents to the
curve and are parallel to the axis. The slopes of tangents at these points are
zero, i.e., the value of the first derivative at these points is zero. The tangent
at P intersects the curve.
2. At the points A and B, sign of the first derivative changes from negative to
positive. So, they are the points of local minima.
3. At the point C and D, sign of the first derivative changes from positive to
negative. So, they are the points of local maxima.
4. At the point P, sign of first derivative does not change. So, it is a point of
inflection.

OBSERVATION
1. Sign of the slope of the tangent (first derivative) at a point on the curve to
the immediate left of A is _______.
2. Sign of the slope of the tangent (first derivative) at a point on the curve to
the immediate right of A is_______.
3. Sign of the first derivative at a point on the curve to immediate left
of B is _______.
4. Sign of the first derivative at a point on the curve to immediate right
of B is _______.
5. Sign of the first derivative at a point on the curve to immediate left
of C is _______.
6. Sign of the first derivative at a point on the curve to immediate right
of C is _______.
7. Sign of the first derivative at a point on the curve to immediate left
of D is _______.

Mathematics 135
 8. Sign of the first derivative at a point on the curve to immediate right
of D is _______.
9. Sign of the first derivative at a point immediate left of P is _______ and
immediate right of P is_______.
10. A and B are points of local _______.
11. C and D are points of local _______.
12. P is a point of _______.

APPLICATION
1. This activity may help in explaining the concepts of points of local maxima,
local minima and inflection.
2. The concepts of maxima/minima are useful in problems of daily life such
as making of packages of maximum capacity at minimum cost.

136 Laboratory Manual

Activity 15
OBJECTIVE MATERIAL REQUIRED
To understand the concepts of Drawing board, white chart paper,
absolute maximum and minimum adhesive, geometry box, pencil and
values of a function in a given closed eraser, sketch pens, ruler, calculator.
interval through its graph.

Y
22
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
¢ 1.27
X X
2 3 1 1 O 1 1 3 2
2 2 2 2 2
4
¢
Y

Fig 15
METHOD OF CONSTRUCTION
1. Fix a white chart paper of convenient size on a drawing board using adhesive.
2. Draw two perpendicular lines on the squared paper as the two rectangular axes.
3. Graduate the two axes as shown in Fig.15.
4. Let the given function be f (x) = (4x2 – 9) (x2 – 1) in the interval [–2, 2].
5. Taking different values of x in [–2, 2], find the values of f (x) and plot the
ordered pairs (x, f (x)).
6. Obtain the graph of the function by joining the plotted points by a free hand
curve as shown in the figure.

DEMONSTRATION
1. Some ordered pairs satisfying f (x) are as follows:

x 0 ± 0.5 ± 1.0 1.25 1.27 ± 1.5 ±2

f (x) 9 6 0 – 1.55 –1.56 0 21

2. Plotting these points on the chart paper and joining the points by a free hand
curve, the curve obtained is shown in the figure.

OBSERVATION
1. The absolute maximum value of f (x) is ________ at x = ________.
2. Absolute minimum value of f (x) is ________ at x = _________.

APPLICATION
The activity is useful in explaining the concepts of absolute maximum / minimum
value of a function graphically.

138 Laboratory Manual

 NOTE
Consider f (x) = (4x2 – 9) (x2 – 1)
3
f (x) = 0 gives the values of x as ± and ±1 . Both these values of x lie in the
2
given closed interval [–2, 2].
f ′ (x) = (4x2 – 9) 2x + 8x (x2 – 1) = 16x3 – 26x = 2x (8x2 – 13)
13
f ′ (x) = 0 gives x = 0, x = ± = ± 1.27 . These two values of x lie in [–2, 2].
8
The function has local maxima/minima at x = 0 and x = ± 1.27, respectively.

Mathematics 139
Activity 26
OBJECTIVE MATERIAL REQUIRED
To measure the shortest distance A piece of plywood of size
between two skew lines and verify it 30 cm × 20 cm, a squared paper,
analytically. three wooden blocks of size
2cm × 2 cm × 2 cm each and one
wooden block of size 2 cm × 2 cm
× 4 cm, wires of different lengths,
set squares, adhesive, pen/pencil,
etc.

METHOD OF CONSTRUCTION
1. Paste a squared paper on a piece of plywood.
2. On the squared paper, draw two lines OA and OB to represent x-axis,
and y-axis, respectively.
3. Name the three blocks of size 2 cm × 2 cm × 2 cm as I, II and III. Name the
other wooden block of size 2 cm × 2 cm × 4 cm as IV.
4. Place blocks I, II, III such that their base centres are at the points
(2, 2), (1, 6) and (7, 6), respectively, and block IV with its base centre at
(6, 2). Other wooden block of size 2 cm × 2 cm × 4 cm as IV.
5. Place a wire joining the points P and Q, the centres of the bases of the
blocks I and III and another wire joining the centres R and S of the tops of
blocks II and IV as shown in Fig. 26.
6. These two wires represent two skew lines.
7. Take a wire and join it perpendicularly with the skew lines and measure the
actual distance.
 Fig. 26

DEMONSTRATION
1. A set-square is placed in such a way that its one perpendicular side is along
the wire PQ.
2. Move the set-square along PQ till its other perpendicular side touches the
other wire.
172 Laboratory Manual
 3. Measure the distance between the two lines in this position using set-square.
This is the shortest distance between two skew lines.
4. Analytically, find the equation of line joining P (2, 2, 0) and Q (7, 6, 0) and
other line joining R (1, 6, 2) and S (6, 2, 4) and find S.D. using

( )( )








a2 – a1 ⋅ b1 × b2
 . The distance obtained in two cases will be the same.
b1 × b2
OBSERVATION
1. Coordinates of point P are ________.
2. Coordinates of point Q are ________.
3. Coordinates of point R are ________.
4. Coordinates of point S are ________.
5. Equation of line PQ is ________.
6. Equation of line RS is ________.

Shortest distance between PQ and RS analytically = ________.

Shortest distance by actual measurement = ________.

The results so obtained are ________.

APPLICATION
This activity can be used to explain the concept of skew lines and of shortest
distance between two lines in space.

Mathematics 173
Activity 27
OBJECTIVE MATERIAL REQUIRED
To explain the computation of A piece of plywood, white paper
conditional probability of a given pen/pencil, scale, a pair of dice.
event A, when event B has already
occurred, through an example of
throwing a pair of dice.

METHOD OF CONSTRUCTION
1. Paste a white paper on a piece of plywood of a convenient size.
2. Make a square and divide it into 36 unit squares of size 1cm each
(see Fig. 27).
3. Write pair of numbers as shown in the figure.

Fig. 27
DEMONSTRATION
1. Fig. 27 gives all possible outcomes of the given experiment. Hence, it
represents the sample space of the experiment.
2. Suppose we have to find the conditional probability of an event A if an event
B has already occurred, where A is the event “a number 4 appears on both
the dice” and B is the event "4 has appeared on at least one of the dice”i.e,
we have to find P(A | B).
3. From Fig. 27 number of outcomes favourable to A = 1
Number of outcomes favourable to B = 11
Number of outcomes favourable to A ∩ B = 1.
NOTE
11
4. (i) P (B) = , 1. You may repeat this activity by
36
taking more events such as the
probability of getting a sum 10 when
1 a doublet has already occurred.
(ii) P (A ∩ Β) =
36 2. Conditional probability
P (A | B) can also be found by first
P(A ∩ B) 1 taking the sample space of event B
(iii) P (A | B) = = . out of the sample space of the
P(B) 11 experiment, and then finding the
probability A from it.
OBSERVATION
1. Outcome(s) favourable to A : _________, n (A) = _________.
2. Outcomes favourable to B : _________, n (B) = _________.
3. Outcomes favourable to A ∩ B : _________, n (A ∩ B) = _________.
4. P (A ∩ B) = _________.
5. P (A | B) = _________ = _________.

APPLICATION
This activity is helpful in understanding the concept of conditional probability,
which is further used in Bayes’ theorem.

Mathematics 175