Math 113 HW #8 Solutions

§3.8
10. A sample of tritium-3 decayed to 94.5% of its original amount after a year.

(a) What is the half-life of tritium-3?

Answer: If N (t) is the amount of tritium-3 relative to the original amount, we know
that the general form of N (t) is
N (t) = Cekt .
Also, we know that N (0) = 1, so

1 = N (0) = Cek·0 = C,

so C = 1 and we can write

N (t) = ekt .
Also, we know N (1) = 0.945, so

0.945 = N (1) = ek·1 = ek .

Taking the natural log of both sides,

k = ln(0.945).

Therefore,  t
N (t) = eln(0.945)t = eln(0.945) = (0.945)t

for any t.
The half-life of tritium-3 is the amount of time t0 such that N (t0 ) = 0.5. Therefore, we
can solve for t0 from the equation

0.5 = N (t0 ) = (0.945)t0 .

Taking the natural log of both sides,

ln(0.5) ln(0.945t0 ) = t0 ln(0.945),

so
ln(0.5)
t0 = ≈ 12.25.
ln(0.945)
Therefore, the half-life of tritium-3 is 12.25 years.
(b) How long would it take the sample to decay to 20% of its original amount?
Answer: If t1 is the time it takes the sample to decay to 20% of its original amount,

0.2 = N (t1 ) = (0.945)t1 ,

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 meaning that (if we take the natural log of both sides),

ln(0.2) = ln(0.945t1 ) = t1 ln(0.945),

so
ln(0.2)
t1 = ≈ 28.45 years.
ln(0.945)
Answer:

14. A thermometer is taken from a room where the temperature is 20◦ C to the outdoors, where
the temperature is 5◦ C. After one minute the thermometer reads 12◦ C.

(a) What will the reading on the thermometer be after one more minute?
Answer: From Newton’s Law of Cooling, we know that

T (t) = Ts + Cekt .

The ambient temperature is Ts = 5◦ C, whereas

20 = T (0) = 5 + Cek·0 = 5 + C,

so C = 15. Therefore,
T (t) = 5 + 15ekt .
Moreover, we know that T (1) = 12, so

12 = T (1) = 5 + 15ek·1 = 5 + 15ek ,

so
7
ek = .
15
Taking the natural log of both sides,
 
7
k = ln .
15

Hence,  t
7
ln( 15 )t
 7
ln( 15 )
t 7
T (t) = 5 + 15e = 5 + 15 e =5+ .
15
Therefore, after 2 minutes, the temperature of the thermometer will be
 2
7 49 124
T (2) = 5 + 15 =5+ = = 8.266 . . .
15 15 15

(b) When will the thermometer read 6◦ C?

Answer: The time t0 when T (t0 ) = 6 is given by
 t0
7
6 = T (t0 ) = 5 + 15 ,
15

2
 so  t0
1 7
= .
15 15
Taking the natural log of both sides,
   t0  
1 7 7
ln = ln = t0 ln .
15 15 15
Therefore,
1
ln 15
t0 = 7 ≈ 3.55,
ln 15
so the thermometer will read 6◦ C after about 3 and a half minutes.
16. A freshly brewed cup of coffee has temperature 95◦ C in a 20◦ C room. When its temperature
is 70◦ C, it is cooling at a rate of 1◦ C per minute. When does this occur?
Answer: From Newton’s Law of Cooling, the temperature of the coffee is given by
T (t) = 20 + Cekt .
At time t = 0,
95 = T (0) = 20 + Cek·0 = 20 + C,
meaning that C = 75 and T (t) = 20 + 75ekt . At some time t0 ,
70 = T (t0 ) = 20 + 75ekt0 ,
so
75ekt0 = 50,
or
2
ekt0 = .
3
Therefore,  
2
kt0 = ln .
3
We also know the rate of change of T at this time t0 :
−1 = T 0 (t0 ) = 75(ekt0 k) = 75kekt0 .
In other words,
−1
k= .
75ekt0
2


Since kt0 = ln 3 , we know that
−1 −1 −1
k= 2
= 2 = .
75eln( 3 ) 75 3 50
2


Since kt0 = ln 3 , we know that
2 2


 
ln 3 ln 3 2
t0 = = −1 = −50 ln ≈ 20.3,
k 50
3
so the cup of coffee is 70◦ C after just over 20 minutes.

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§3.10
12. Find the differential of the functions

(a) y = s/(1 + 2s)

s
Answer: If f (s) = 1+2s , then, by definition,

dy = f 0 (s)ds.

Now,
(1 + 2s) · 1 − s · 2 1 + 2s − 2s 1
f 0 (s) = = = .
(1 + 2s)2 (1 + 2s)2 (1 + 2s)2
Therefore, the differential is
ds
dy = .
(1 + 2s)2
(b) y = e−u cos u
Answer: If g(u) = e−u cos u, then, by definition,

dy = g 0 (u)du.

Since

g 0 (u) = −e−u cos u + e−u (− sin u) = −e−u cos u − e−u sin u = −e−u (cos u + sin u),

we have that
dy = −e−u (cos u + sin u)du.
18. (a) Find the differential dy of y = cos x.
Answer: By definition, if f (x) = cos x, then

dy = f 0 (x)dx.

Since f 0 (x) = − sin x, this means that

dy = − sin xdx.

(b) Evaluate dy for x = π/3 and dx = 0.05.

√
3
Answer: Given the above expression for dy and knowing that sin π3 = 2 , we have that
√ √
3 3
dy = − (0.05) = − ≈ 0.0433.
2 40

24. Use a linear approximation (or differentials) to estimate e−0.015 .

Answer: Let f (x) = ex . If L(x) is the linearization of f at 0, then

L(x) = f (0) + f 0 (0)(x − 0) = 1 + 1(x − 0) = 1 + x.

Since −0.015 is close to 0, it should be the case that

e−0.015 ≈ L(−0.015) = 1 + (−0.015) = 0.985.

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32. Let f (x) = (x − 1)2 , g(x) = e−2x , h(x) = 1 + ln(1 − 2x).

(a) Find the linearizations of f , g, and h at a = 0. What do you notice? How do you explain
what happened?
Answer: By definition, the linearization of f is

f (0) + f 0 (0)(x − 0) = f (0) + f 0 (0)x.

Since f 0 (x) = 2(x − 1), we know that f (0) = 1 and f 0 (0) = −2, so the linearization of f
is
1 − 2x.
By definition, the linearization of g is

g(0) + g 0 (0)(x − 0) = g(0) + g 0 (0)x.

Since g 0 (x) = −2e−2x , we know that g(0) = 1 and g 0 (0) = −2, so the linearization of g is

1 − 2x

By definition, the linearization of h is

h(0) + h0 (0)(x − 0) = h(0) + h0 (0)x.

−2
Since h0 (x) = 1−2x , we know that h(0) = 1 and h0 (0) = −2, so the linearization of h is

1 − 2x.

We notice that all three linearizations are the same. This occurs because f (0) = g(0) =
h(0) and f 0 (0) = g 0 (0) = h0 (0): all three functions have the same value at 0 and their
derivatives also have the same value at 0. Of course, this says nothing about the behavior
of the three functions at other points.

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 (b) Graph f , g, and h and their linear approximations. For which function is the linear
approximation best? For which is it worst? Explain.
Answer:

-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5

-1

-2

-3

Figure 1: Blue: f ; Red: g; Purple: h; Black: linearization

From the picture, the linear approximation appears to be best for f and worst for h.

Answer: