M ATH 150: S EMINAR #2 Q UESTIONS S OLUTIONS

Content:

Section 1.3: New Functions from Old Functions

Section 1.4: Exponential Functions

Section 1.5: Inverse Functions and Logarithms
Questions:
2
1. Write sin2 (ex −x
) as a composition of (elementary) functions.
Solution.
2
sin2 (ex −x
) = (f ◦ g ◦ h ◦ k)(x) where f (x) = x2 , g(x) = sin x, h(x) = ex and k(x) = x2 − x.
2. Let L be the line through the points (0, −2) and (2, 4) and f be the function given by f (x) = x2 − 2x + 2.

a) Determine the equation of the line L. Is (−1, −3) a point on the line? How about ( 37 , 5)?
√
b) Is (3, 2) a point on the graph of f ? How about ( 3 + 1, 4)?
c) Sketch the graph of f and the line L on the same set of coordinate axes.
d) Determine the intersection points of L and the graph of the function y = f (x).

Solution.

a) The slope of the line is

4 − (−2) 6
m= = =3
2−0 2
And so the equation of the line is:

y − y1 = m(x − x1 )
y−4 = 3(x − 2)
y = 3x − 6 + 4
y = 3x − 2

Plugging in x = −1 into the equation of the line we get y = 3 · (−1) − 2 = −5 ̸= −3, so (−1, −3) is
not on the line. Similarly, 3 · 37 − 2 = 7 − 2 = 5, so the point ( 73 , 5) IS on the line.
b) If (3, 2) is on the graph of f then f (3) = 2. We check this: f (3) =√32 − 2 ∗ 3 + 2 = 9 − 6 + 2 = 5 ̸= 2.
Thus, (3, 2) is not on the graph of f . We similarly check: does f ( 3 + 1) = 4?
√ √ √ √ √ √ √
( 3 + 1)2 − 2( 3 + 1) + 2 = [( 3)2 + 2 3 + 1] + [−2 3 − 2] + 2 = 4 +  2  3 −
2 3−2+2=4
√
Thus, ( 3 + 2, 4) is a point on the graph of f .
c) To sketch the graph of f , we first complete the square of f (x) = x2 − 2x + 2 in order to see how the
graph of y = x2 has been transformed. We do this by adding and subtracting 1:

x2 − 2x + 2 = (x2 − 2x + 1) − 1 + 2 = (x2 − 2x + 1) + 1 = (x − 1)2 + 1.

This is the graph of y = x2 translated 1 unit right and 1 unit up. The graph of f is shown in blue
below, and the graph of L is depicted in red on the same axis:
M ATH 150: S EMINAR #2 Q UESTIONS S OLUTIONS

12 y

10

4 (2, 4)

x
−3 −2 −1 1 2 3 4 5
−2 (0, −2)

d) We want to find the values of (x, y) which satisfy both y = 3x − 2 and y = x2 − 2x + 2 simultaneously.
Substituting the first equation into the second we get

3x − 2 = x2 − 2x + 2

and solving for x gives x2 − 5x + 4 = 0 which factors as (x − 4)(x − 1) = 0 Therefore, x = 1 or

x = 5 and since f (1) = 1 and f (4) = 10, the intersection points are (1, 1) and (4, 10). Notice that the
solutions, which we found algebraically, seem to agree with the graph above.

3. Use rational exponents and the exponent laws to simplify the following expressions as much as possible:
√
9
(a) x3
√
3
x9
(b) 2x3

Solution.
√9 1 3 1
(a) x3 = (x3 ) 9 = x 9 = x 3
√ 1 9
3
x9 (x9 ) 3 x3 x3 1
(b) 2x3 = 2x3 = 2x3 = 2x3 = 2

4. Let A, B ⊆ R. Suppose that f has domain A and g has domain B.

(a) What is the domain of f + g?
(b) What is the domain of f · g?
(c) What is the domain of f /g?

Solution.

(a) We have that (f + g)(x) = f (x) + g(x) so any x in the domain of f + g must be in the domain of both
f and g. Thus, the domain of f + g is the intersection of the domain of f and the domain of g; that
is A ∩ B.
(b) Since (f · g)(x) = f (x) · g(x), any x in the domain of f · g must be in the domain of both f and g. The
domain of f g is also A ∩ B.
(c) The domain of f /g must exclude the values of x that make g equal to 0; that is

{x ∈ A ∩ B|g(x) ̸= 0}
M ATH 150: S EMINAR #2 Q UESTIONS S OLUTIONS

5. If y m = x, express y 3m in terms of x.
Solution. y 3m = y m·3 = (y m )3 = x3 .

6. Starting with the graph of y = ex , find the equation of the graph that results from
(a) reflecting about the line y = 4.
(b) reflecting about the line x = 2.
Solution.

(a) This reflection consists of first reflecting the graph about the x-axis (giving the graph with the
equation y = −ex ) and then shifting the graph 2·4 = 8 units upward. So the equation is y = −ex +8.
(b) This reflection consists of first reflecting the graph about the y-axis (giving the graph with the
equation y = e−x ) and then shifting the graph 2 · 2 = 4 units to the right. So the equation is
y = e−(x−4) .

7. Find the domain of the following functions.

(a) g(t) = sin(e−t )
√
(b) g(t) = 1 − 2t

Solution.
(a) The sine and exponential functions have domain R, so g(t) = sin(e−t ) also has domain R.
√
(b) The function g(t) = 1 − 2t has domain = {t | 1 − 2t ≥ 0} = {t | 2t ≤ 1} = {t | t ≤ 0} = (−∞, 0].
8. Let f (x) = 4x , then, for any real number x and any real number h ̸= 0, show that
 h 
f (x + h) − f (x) 4 −1
= 4x
h h

Solution. If f (x) = 4x , then

4x+h − 4x 4x 4h − 4x 4x (4h − 1) 4h − 1
 
f (x + h) − f (x)
= = = = 4x · .
h h h h h

9. If y = ln x, write ln(xex ) as a function in terms of y.

Solution. ln(xex ) = ln(x) + ln(ex ) = ln x + x ln(e) = ln(x) + x = y + ey .
√
10. Let g(x) = ln(x + x2 + 1).

(a) Find the domain of g.

√
(b) Show that the function g(x) = ln(x + x2 + 1) is an odd function.
(c) Can you justify that the function is one-to-one?
(d) Find the inverse function of g.

Solution.

(a) We cannot take the square root of a negative number, so we need that

x2 + 1 ≥ 0 ⇒ x2 ≥ −1

which provides no restrictions

√ on the domain. We also √cannot √
take the logarithm
√ of a negative
number, so we need x + x2 + 1 > 0.√ Recall that |x| = x2 < x2 + 1. Since x2 + 1 is always
positive, we can now deduce that x + x2 + 1 > 0. Thus the domain of g is {x|x ∈ R}
M ATH 150: S EMINAR #2 Q UESTIONS S OLUTIONS

(b) Let x ∈ R. Then

√ !
 p  p −x − x2 + 1
g(−x) = ln −x + (−x)2
+ 1 = ln (−x + + 1) · x2 √
−x − x2 + 1
 2
x − (x2 + 1)
    
−1 1
= ln √ = ln √ = ln √
−x − x2 + 1 −x − x2 + 1 x + x2 + 1
p p
= ln 1 − ln(x + x2 + 1) = − ln(x + x2 − 1) = −g(x)

(c) g is 1-1 because it passes the Horizontal Line Test.

√ √ √
(d) y = ln(x + x2 + 1) so ey = x + x2 + 1 ⇒ ey − x = x2 + 1.
Squaring both sides we get e2y − 2xey + x2 = x2 + 1 so e2y − 1 = 2xey so we get

e2y − 1
x= = f −1 (y).
2ey
Alternate solution: We can use the result of part (b), g is odd, to get a nice solution to this
problem. First, we have two equations relating x and y (the second one is from g being an odd
function):
p
y = ln(x + x2 + 1)
p
−y = ln(−x + x2 + 1)

Taking the exponentials of both equations:

p
ey = x +x2 + 1
p
e−y = −x + x2 + 1

Now take the difference of the two equations:

ey − e−y = 2x

and so
ey − e−y
x= = f −1 (y)
2
11. Let f be a one-to-one function whose inverse is given by the formula

f −1 (x) = x5 + 3x3 + 2x + 1
M ATH 150: S EMINAR #2 Q UESTIONS S OLUTIONS

(a) Compute f −1 (1).

(b) Compute f (1).
(c) Compute the value of x0 such that f (x0 ) = 1.
(d) Compute the value of y0 such that f −1 (y0 ) = 1.
(e) Below is the graph of f −1 (x). Draw an approximate graph of f (x).

−2 2

−2

Solution.

(a) f is a one-to-one function whose inverse is given by the formula

f −1 (x) = x3 + 3x2 + 2x + 1

Since we are given an algebraic representation of f −1 (x), it is a straight forward calculation to

compute f −1 (1):
f −1 (1) = 13 + 3 · 12 + 2 · 1 + 1 = 1 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 7.
(b) In order to calculatef (1) from an algebraic formula we need to know f (x) where f (x) is the inverse
of f −1 (x). This would require solving for x in a 5th degree polynomial which is generally not pos-
sible. However, we are not asked for f (x) but only for f (1). Since the inverse of a function is the
function reflected over the line y = x, the point (x0 , f (x0 )) is a reflection over y = x of (y0 , f −1 (y0 ))
where f (x0 ) = y0 and x0 = f −1 (y0 ).
This means that instead of computing f (x0 = 1), we can alternatively find y0 such that f −1 (y0 ) = 1.
To calculate this, we set:

f −1 (y0 ) = 1 ⇔ y03 + 3 · y02 + 2 · y0 + 1 = 1 ⇔ y03 + 3 · y02 + 2 · y0 = 0

which immediately gives y0 = 0 as a solution. Thus, since f −1 (0) = 1, we know that f (1) = 0 (note
that we are told f is a one-to-one function, so this is the only solution).
(c) By similar reasoning as given above, if x0 is the point such that f (x0 ) = 1, then (x0 , f (x0 ) = 1)
is a reflection over the line y = x of (y0 , f −1 (y0 )) where f (x0 ) = 1 = y0 . In part (a) we saw that
f −1 (1) = 7, so we reason that x0 = 7 when f (x0 ) = 1.
(d) We have already deduced in part (b) that f −1 (0) = 1.
(e)
M ATH 150: S EMINAR #2 Q UESTIONS S OLUTIONS

12. The graph of f is given.

(a) Why is f one-to-one?
(b) What are the domain and range of f −1 ?
(c) What is the value of f −1 (2)?
(d) Estimate the value of f −1 (0).

Solution.
(a) f is 1-1 because it passes the Horizontal Line Test.
(b) Domain of f = [−3, 3] = Range of f −1 . Range of f = [−1, 3] = Domain of f −1 .
(c) Since f (0) = 2, f −1 (2) = 0.
(d) Since f (−1.7) ≈ 0, f −1 (0) ≈ −1.7.