Mathematics for economists, 2022

Problem set 4 : Introduction to differentiation

Exercise 1
Find the following limits :

1. lim (4x2 − 10x + 2) x−3

x→3 5. lim
x→+∞ x2 + 1
x2 − x
r
2. lim 2 + 3x
x→7 2x − 7
6. lim
x→−∞ x−1
x−1
r
3. lim 2 2x2 − 1
x→1 x − x − 2 7. lim
x→∞ x
x2 − x 1
4. lim 8. lim x( + 3)
x→0 x2 + x x→−∞ x

Exercise 2
Draw each of the following piecewise linear function, and find its limits
as x approaches 3 from the left and from the right. Is it continuous at x = 3 ?
( (
x if x ≤ 3 x if x ≤ 3
1. f (x) = 3. f (x) =
6 − x if x > 3 7 − x if x > 3
( (
5 − x if x ≤ 3 5 − x if x ≤ 3
2. f (x) = 4. f (x) =
x − 2 if x > 3 x − 1 if x > 3

Exercise 3
2
Let f be a function such that f (x) = ax + x−b . Determine a and b
knowing that lim f (x) = +∞ and lim f (x) = 11.
x→3+ x→5

Exercise 4
Find two functions f and g, knowing that lim f (x) = +∞ and lim g(x) =
x→+∞ x→+∞
+∞, such that :
1. lim f (x) − g(x) = 1
x→+∞
f (x)
2. lim =7
x→+∞ g(x)
(Note : 1. and 2. are two different questions, not two conditions to respect
simultaneously.)

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 Mathematics for economists, 2022

Exercise 5
Determine the values of x at which each of the following functions is
continuous :

1. f (x) = x5 + 4x x8 − 3x2 + 1
5. f (x) =
x x2 + 2x − 2
2. f (x) = x + 1 1/2
1−x 6. f (x) = ( )
x−1
1 √
3. f (x) = √ x + 1/x
2−x 7. f (x) = 2
x + 2x + 2
x 1
4. f (x) = 8. f (x) = |x| +
x2 +1 |x|

Exercise 6
If f (x) = ax3 + bx2 + cx + d, show that

[f (x + h) − f (x)]/h = 3ax2 + 2bx + c + 3axh + ah2 + bh

and hence that f 0 (x) = 3ax2 + 2bx + c.

Exercise 7
Find the derivative of each function :

1. f (x) = x4 1
9. f (x) =
2. f (x) = x1/3 x6
1 1
3. f (x) = x3 10. f (x) = 1/2
2 x
1 1 1
4. f (x) = x9 11. f (x) = x3 + x2 + x + 1
3 6 2
3 √ 1
5. f (x) = 2 12. f (x) = x −
x x
4
6. f (x) = 3 5
x 13. f (x) = −7 + 5x − x2 − 3x4
2
7. f (x) = 4x2 − 3x + 2
1 1
8. f (x) = 3x2 − 5x + 4 14. f (x) = x5/2 − x3/2
5 3

Exercise 8
1. Find the equation of the tangent line to f (x) = x2 − 2x + 2 at x = 3.
2. Find the equation of the tangent line to f (x) = x3 − 3x2 + 2x − 2 at
x = 2.

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Exercise 9
√ √ √ √
1. Show that ( x + h − x)( x + h + x) = h.
√ √ √
2. If f (x) = x, show that (f (x + h) − f (x))/h = 1/( x + h + x).
3. Use these results to show that for x > 0,
√ 1
f (x) = x ⇒ f 0 (x) = √ .
2 x

Exercise 10
You are interested in forecasting the size of the population of a country.
You estimated that the population is given by P (x) = − 31 x3 + 25x2 − 300x +
31000 (in thousands), where x is the number of years after 2016.
1. What will be the rate of change of the population in 2016 ? Interpret.
2. What will the rate of change of the population in 2036 ? Interpret.

Exercise 11
The number of people newly infected on day t of a flu epidemic is f (t) =
13t2 − t3 (for 0 ≤ t ≤ 13). Find the instantaneous rate of change of this
number on Day 5 and Day 10, and interpret your answer.

Exercise 12
It has been estimated that the number of people who will see a newspaper
advertisement that has run for x consecutive days is of the form N (x) =
T − 12 T /x for x ≥ 1, where T is the total readership of the newspaper. If a
newspaper has a circulation of 400000, find how fast this number of potential
customers is growing when this ad has run for 5 days.

Exercise 13
A plane is to take off and reach level of cruising altitude of 5 km after
a horizontal distance of 100 km. Find a polynomial flight path of the form
f (x) = ax3 + bx2 + cx + d, knowing that :
— The plane is on the ground at x = 0.
— The plane is horizontal at x = 0.
— At the 100th km, the height is 5 and the path is horizontal.

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 Mathematics for economists, 2022

Exercise 14
Show that
1
f (x) = x1/3 ⇒ f 0 (x) = x−2/3 .
3
(Hint : Prove that [(x+h)1/3 −x1/3 ][(x+h)2/3 +(x+h)1/3 x1/3 +x2/3 ) = h.)