Practice Problems 7 : Mean Value Theorem, Cauchy Mean Value Theorem, LHospital Rule

1. Use the mean value theorem (MVT) to establish the following inequalities.

(a) ex 1 + x for x R.
1
1
(b) 2n+1 < n+1 n<
2 n
for all n N.
x1
(c) x < lnx < x 1 for x > 1.

2. Does there exist a differentiable function f : [0, 2] R satisfying f (0) = 1, f (2) = 4 and
f 0 (x) 2 for all x [0, 2]?
3. Let f : [0, 1] R be differentiable such that |f 0 (x)| < 1 for all x [0, 1]. Show that there
exists at most one c [0, 1] such that f (c) = c.
4. Let f : R R be differentiable such that, for some R, |f 0 (x)| < 1 for all x R.
Let a1 R and an+1 = f (an ) for n N. Show that the sequence (an ) converges.
5. Let f : [0, 1] R be twice differentiable. Suppose that the line segment joining the points
(0, f (0)) and (1, f (1)) intersect the graph of f at a point (a, f (a)) where 0 < a < 1. Show
that there exists x0 [0, 1] such that f 00 (x0 ) = 0.
6. Let f : [0, 1] R be continuous. Suppose that f is differentiable on (0, 1) and limx0 f 0 (x) =
for some R. Show that f 0 (0) exists and f 0 (0) = .
7. Let f : [0, 1] R be differentiable and f (0) = 0. Suppose that |f 0 (x)| |f (x)| for all
x [0, 1]. Show that f (x) = 0 for all x [0, 1].
8. Let f : [0, ) R be continuous and f (0) = 0. Suppose that f 0 (x) exists for all x (0, )
and f 0 is increasing on (0, ). Show that the function g(x) = f (x)
x is increasing on (0, ).

9. Establish the following inequalities.

(a) For > 1, (1 + x) 1 + x for all x > 1.
(b) For x > 0, e ln x x.
10. Let f : [a, b] R be differentiable and a 0. Using Cauchy mean value theorem, show
0 (c ) 0
that there exist c1 , c2 (a, b) such that fa+b 1
= f 2c(c22 ) .
11. Let f : R R be such that f 00 (c) exists at some c R. Using LHospital rule, show that
f (c + h) 2f (c) + f (c h)
lim = f 00 (c).
h0 h2
Show with an example that if the above limit exists then f 00 (c) may not exist.
12. (*) Let f : [a, b] R be differentiable. If f 0 (x) 6= 0 for all x [a, b], then show that either
f 0 (x) 0 for all x [a, b] or f 0 (x) 0 for all x [a, b].
13. (*) Let f : [a, b] R be differentiable and R be such that f 0 (a) < < f 0 (b). Define
g(x) = f (x) x for all x [a, b].
(a) Using the fact that g 0 (a) < 0 and g 0 (b) > 0, show that the condition g 0 (x) 6= 0 for all
x [a, b] leads to a contradiction.
(b) Show that there exists c [a, b] such that f 0 (c) = .
(c) From (b), conclude that if a function f is differentiable at every point of an interval
[a, b], then its derivative f 0 has the IVP on [a, b].
 Practice Problems 7: Hints/Solutions

1. (a) Let x > 0. By the MVT there exists c (0, x) such that ex e0 = ec (x 0). This
implies that ex 1 + x. The proof is similar for the case x < 0.
1
(b) By the MVT, for f (x) = x, there exists c (n, n + 1) such that n + 1 n = 2 c
.
(c) By the MVT, there exists c (1, x) such that ln x ln 1 = 1c (x 1).
2. If so, then by the MVT there exits c (0, 2) such that 5 = f (2) f (0) = 2f 0 (c).
3. Suppose f (c1 ) = c1 and f (c2 ) = c2 for some c1 , c2 [0, 1] and c1 6= c2 . Then by the MVT,
there exists c0 (0, 1) such that c2 c1 = f (c2 ) f (c1 ) = f 0 (c0 )(c2 c1 ); i.e., f 0 (c0 ) = 1.
4. Note that, for some c, |an+2 an+1 | = |f (an+1 )f (an )| = |f 0 (c)||an+1 an | < |an+1 an |.
The sequence satisfies the Cauchy criterion and hence it converges.
f (a)f (0)
5. Using the MVT on [0, a] and [a, 1], obtain b (0, a) and c (a, 1) such that a0 =
f (1)f (a)
f 0 (b)
and =
1a f 0 (c).
Note that = f 0 (b) f 0 (c)
because they are slopes of the same
chord. By Rolles theorem there exists x0 (b, c) such that f 00 (x0 ) = 0.
f (x)f (0)
6. For every x > 0, by the MVT, there exists cx (0, x) such that x = f 0 (cx ). Now
f 0 (0) = limx0 f (x)f
x
(0)
= limx0 f 0 (cx ) = limcx 0 f 0 (cx ) = .
7. For x (0, 1), by the MVT, there exists x1 such that 0 < x1 < x and f (x) = f 0 (x1 )x.
This implies that |f (x)| x|f (x1 )|. Similarly there exists x2 such that 0 < x2 < x1 and
|f (x1 )| x1 |f (x2 )|. Therefore |f (x)| x2 |f (x2 )|. Find a sequence (xn ) in (0, 1) such that
|f (x)| xn |f (xn )|. Since f is bounded on [0, 1], xn |f (xn )| 0. Hence f (x) = 0.
f (x)
0 f 0 (x)
8. Note that g 0 (x) = xf (x)f
x2
(x)
= x
x
. Observe that, by the MVT, f (x)
x = f 0 (cx ) for
0 0
some cx (0, x). Since f is increasing, g (x) 0. Hence g is increasing.
9. (a) Let > 1 and f (x) = (1 + x) (1 + x) on (1, ). Therefore f 0 (x) 0 on (1, 0]
and f 0 (x) 0 on [0, ). Hence f (x) f (0) = 0 on (1, 0] and f (x) f (0) = 0 on [0, ).
Therefore f (x) 0 on (1, ).
(b) Define f (x) = x e lnx on (0, ). Then f 0 (x) = xe 0
x . Therefore f (x) > 0 on (e, )
0
and f (x) < 0 on (0, e). Hence f (x) > f (e) for all x (0, ) and x 6= e.
10. Apply Cauchy MVT to f (x) and g1 (x) = x. Again apply to f (x) and g2 (x) = x2 .
11. Since f 00 (c) exists there exists a > 0 such that f 0 (x) exists on (c , c + ). There-
0 0 (ch)
fore by LHospital rule, the given limit is equal to limh0 f (c+h)f h2 i
if it exists. But
f 0 (c+h)f 0 (ch) f 0 (c+h)f 0 (c) f 0 (ch)f 0 (c)
h
limh0 2h
1
= 2 limh0 h + limh0 h = 2 [f 00 (c) + f 00 (c)].
1

Let f (x) = 1 on (0, ), f (0) = 0 and f (x) = 1 on (, 0). Then f is not continuous at
0 hence f 00 (0) does not exist. It can be easily verified that the limit given in the question
exists.
12. Since f is one-one, it either strictly increasing or strictly decreasing (see Problem 15 of
Practice Problems 5). Apply the definition of f 0 to show that either f 0 (x) 0 for all
x [a, b] or f 0 (x) 0 for all x [a, b].
13. (a) Follows from Problem 12.
(b) Trivial.
(c) Trivial.