MAT 1005 – Exercises

1. Find the domain of each function given below and draw the graph of each function:

6 (h) f (x) = x3 + 2x2 − 4x − 13

(a) f (x) =
2−x
√ (i) 3x + 4y = 7
(b) f (x) = 2x − 1
(c) f (x) = x2 + 4x + 4 (j) y = 2 − x2
(d) y = −2x2 + 4x − 1
(
−1 x ≤ 0
(k) f (x) =
(e) y = ex−1 1 x>0
2x − 6
(f) f (x) =
(
x2 − 6x + 5 −x + 1 x ≤ 1
(l) f (x) =
(g) f (x) = |x| + 1 2x − 1 x > 2

2. Confirm all expressions below are function or not and explain.

(a) x = 4 + y 2 (c) 2x − 2y + 4 = 2x + 4y − 1
(b) x2 + y 2 = 4 (d) 2x − |y| = 1

3. The squaring function is given by f (x) = x2 . Find

(a) f (−3) f (t + 1) − f (t)

(f)
(b) f (1) 1
(c) f (k) (g) f (t + h)
√

(d) f k
f (t + h) − f (t)
(e) f (t + 1) (h)
h

4. Replace x2 by x − x2 in the formula of f in 3. Do again all the question as in 3 with the new function
f (x) = x − x2 .

5. (Compound Interest) Suppose that $5000 is invested at 8% interest, compounded semiannually, for t
years.

(a) The amount A in the account is a function of (b) Determine the domain of the function in part
time. Find an equation for this function. (a).

6. (Compound interest). An investor purchases a $300, 000 certificate of deposit from Descartes Bank, at
2.2%. How much is the investment worth (rounded to the nearest cent) at the end of 1 yr, if interest
is compounded:

(a) annually? (d) daily (use 365 days for 1 yr)?

(b) semiannually?
(c) quarterly? (e) hourly?

7. (Determining monthly payments on a loan). Let P be borrowed dollars with the annual interest rate
i. The total number of monthly payments is n. The monthly payment made at the end of each month
for n months is denoted by M .
 (a) Explain
i i
n
1+
M = P 12 12 (1)
i
n
1+ −1
12
8. Fermat’s Last Bank makes a car loan of $18, 000, at 6.4% interest and with a loan period of 3 yr. What
is the monthly payment?

9. Retirement account. Sally makes deposits into a retirement account every year from the age of 30 until
she retires at age 65.

(a) If Sally deposits $1200 per year and the account earns interest at a rate of 8% per year, com-
pounded annually, how much does she have in the account when she retires? (Hint: Use the
annuity formula for Exercises 35 and 36.)
(b) How much of that total amount is from Sally’s deposits? How much is interest?

10. (a) Sally plans to take regular monthly distributions from her retirement account from the time she
retires until she is 80 years old, when the account will have a value of $0. How much should she
take each month? Assume the interest rate is 8% per year, compounded monthly. (Hint: Use the
formula for Exercises 33 and 34 that calculates the monthly payments on a loan.)
(b) What is the total of the payments she will receive? How much of the total will be her own money
(see part b of Exercise 39), and how much will be interest?

11. Find an equation of the line:

(a) with slope −5, containing (−2, 3). 1 1

(e) containing ( , ) and (3, 4)
1 3 4
(b) with y− intercept (0, −5) and slope (f) containing (x, 3x) and (x + h, 3(x + h))
2
(c) with x− intercept (3, 0) and slope −2 (g) containing (x, −2x − 1) and (x + h, −2(x +
(d) containing (0, 1) and (1, 0) h) − 1)

12. (Profit-and-loss analysis). Red Tide is planning a new line of skis. For the first year, the fixed costs for
setting up production are $45, 000. The variable costs for producing each pair of skis are estimated at
$80, and the selling price will be $255 per pair. It is projected that 3000 pairs will sell the first year.

(a) Find and graph C(x) the total cost of producing x pairs of skis.
(b) Find and graph R(x) the total revenue from the sale of x pairs of skis. Use the same axes as in
part (a).
(c) Using the same axes as in part (a), find and graph P (x) the total profit from the production and
sale of x pairs of skis.
(d) What profit or loss will the company realize if the expected sale of 3000 pairs occurs?
(e) How many pairs must the company sell in order to break even?

13. Complete each of the following statements.

(a) As x approaches 3, the value of 2x + 5 approaches .

(b) As x approaches −4, the value of −3x + 1 approaches
(c) As x approaches , the value of −2x + 4 approaches 6.
(d) As x approaches , the value of x3 + 4x2 − 3x + 7 approaches 9.
(e) The notation lim f (x) is read
x→0

14. (a) Write an equation that defines the exponential function with base b > 0.
 (b) What is the domain of this function?
(c) If b = 1, what is the range of this function?
(d) Sketch the general shape of the graph of the exponential function for each of the following cases.
i. b > 1
ii. b = 1
iii. 0 < b < 1
15. (a) Explain in your own words what is meant by the equation lim f (x) = 5. Is it possible for this
x→1
statement to be true and yet f (1) = 4? Explain.
(b) Explain what it means to say that lim f (x) = 1 and lim f (x) = 2. In this case, is it possible
x→2+ x→2−
that lim f (x) exist?
x→1
(c) Explain the meaning of lim f (x) = +∞ and lim f (x) = −∞.
x→3 x→−3

16. Determine the limit.

(a) lim (2x + 1) x−2

x→1 (d) lim √
x→2 x+2−2
√ √
x2 − 2x t+1− 1−t
(b) lim (e) lim
x→2 x2 − 3x + 2 t→0 t
t+1 (x + h)3 − x3
(c) lim (f) lim
t→−1 t3 +1 h→0 h

17. Find the limit, if it exists. If the limit does not exist, explain why.

|x + 2|


(a) lim |x + 4| − 2x (c) lim
x→−4
( x→−2 2x + 4
1 x>0
(b) lim f (x) with f (x) =
x→0 −1 x≤0

18. Use the graph (Figure 1) to find the limits and answer the related questions.

Figure 1: Limit and Continuity 1

(a) Find lim+ G(x). (e) Is G continuous at x = 3? Why and why not?
x→3
(b) Find lim G(x). (f) Is G continuous at x = 0? Why and why not?
x→3−
(c) Find lim G(x). (g) Is G continuous at x = 2.9? Why and why
x→3
(d) Find G(3). not?
19. (Business: Price Breaks). Rick’s Rocks sells decorative landscape rocks in bulk quantities. For quanti-
ties up to and including 500 lb, Rick charges 2.50 per pound. For quantities above
( 500 lb, he charges 2
2.5x for 0 ≤ x ≤ 500
per pound. The price function can be stated as a piecewise function: p(x) =
2x for x > 500.
where p is the price in dollars and x is the quantity in pounds. Is the price function p(x) continuous
at x = 500 Why or why not?
20. The Candy Factory sells candy by the pound, charging $1.50 per pound for quantities up to and
including 20 pounds. Above 20 pounds, the Candy Factory charges $1.25 per pound for the entire
quantity,
( plus a quantity surcharge k. If x represents the number of pounds, the price function is
1.5x for 0 ≤ x ≤ 20
p(x) =
1.25x + k for x > 20.

(a) Find k such that the price function p is continuous at p = 20.

(b) Explain why it is preferable to have continuity at p = 20.
21. The average rate of change of f with respect to x is also called the difference quotient. It is given
f (x + h) − f (x)
by where h ̸= 0. The difference quotient is equal to the slope of the secant line from
h
(x, f (x)) to (x + h, f (x + h)). For f (x) = x2 find the difference quotient when:
(a) x = 5 and h = 3
(b) x = 5 and h = 0.1
(c) x = 5 and h = 0.01
22. For any function f given below, find a simplified form of the difference quotient. That is, for any x
f (x + h) − f (x)
and h, simplify expression .
h
(a) f (x) = x2 1
(c) f (x) =
x
√
(b) f (x) = x3 (d) f (x) = x

23. For each function in Question 22,

f (x + h) − f (x)
(a) Find the limit lim .
h→0 h
(b) Compare the above results with f ′ (x) for each function.
−1
24. Find an equation of the tangent line to the graph of f (x) = at
x
(a) (−1, 1) 1
(c) (100, − )
1 100
(b) (2, − )
2

25. List the points in the graph at which each function is not differentiable.
Figure 2: Differentiability of the function f at x1 , x2 . . . , x12 .