Mathematics I. Topic 2 Exercises.

MATHEMATICS I (course 2024-25)

Topic 2 Exercises
Derivation

Exercise 1. Use the definition of the derivative to study whether f (x) = |x − 3| is derivable at the point
x = 3.

α x3 , x ≤ 2

Exercise 2. Consider the function f (x) = where α, β ∈ R. Calculate the value of α and
x2 + β, x > 2
β so that f (x) is continuous and derivable at all points.

Exercise 3. For each of the following functions, obtain the equation of the tangent line to the graph of
the function at the point indicated, and also, the equation of the perpendicular line to the tangent line that
passes through the same point.
√ √

i) f (x) = 1 − x2 ex , (0, 1) ii) f (x) = ln 1 + x2 , (1, ln 2) iii) f (x) = x 4 − x2 , 1, 3

Exercise 4. Calculate the following limits:

3 −2x+1 5−2x3/2 5−2x3/2
1) lim −5x 2) lim x5 − x32


4x4 −3x2 +5
3) lim 4) lim
x→∞ 3x+2
3/2
x→∞ x→0 x→∞ 3x −4

5−2x3/2 x3 ln x3 √3x
2
5) lim 2 6) lim 2x 7) lim 4 8) lim
x→∞ 3x −4 x→+∞ e x→∞ x x→∞ x2 +1

 3x  x2 √
9) lim x−2
x+1 10) lim x−7
x+2 11) lim (ex + 3x)2/x 12) lim x+10−4
x−6
x→+∞ x→+∞ x→0 x→6

Exercise 5. Find the expression of the tangent line to the graph of each equation at a given point in the
following cases:
2 2 √ √
i) x2 + y8 = 1, (1, 2) ii) x + y = 5, (9, 4) iii) (x + 1)2 + (y − 3)2 = 8, (1, 1)

iv) x3 + y 3 = 6xy − 1, (2, 3)

Exercise 6. Let the function be f (x) = x3 + αx2 + βx + θ where α, β, θ ∈ R

i) Which are the values of α and β so that f (x) has a local maximum at x = 0?

ii) Which are the values of α and β so that f (x) has critical points at x = −1 and x = 3?

Exercise 7. For the functions below: (i) Obtain their domain and the points of intersection with the axes;
(ii) Study the continuity and at those points where discontinuity may exist, analyze what type they are;
(iii) Calculate, if they exist, the horizontal and vertical asymptotes; (iv) Obtain the intervals over which the
function is decreasing/increasing and the local maxima and minima, if any; (v) Make a sketch of the graph
without the study of concavity/convexity in those cases where it is considered less necessary.
Mathematics I. Topic 2 Exercises. 2

2x 3x2
1) f (x) = x3 + x2 − 5x + 3 2) f (x) = 2x2 1 − x2


3) f (x) = x2 −4
4) f (x) = x2 +1
|x−3| |x−3|
7) f (x) = (x − 3) e−x 8) f (x) = 1 − x2 ex


5) f (x) = x2 +1
6) f (x) = x+1
√ √ e 3x x4 +1
9) f (x) = x 4 − x2 10) f (x) = x 4 − x 11) f (x) = 1+e 3x 12) f (x) = x2

13) f (x) = ln 1 + x2 14) f (x) = ln x2 + 2x − 3 15) f (x) = √xx2 +5 √−3x

16) f (x) = x2 +7

Note: Functions 15) and 16) each have two horizontal asymptotes, that is, lim f (x) ̸= lim f (x). To
√ x→−∞ x→+∞ √
obtain them, you have to divide the numerator and denominator by x = x2 for x > 0 and by x = − x2
for x < 0.

2
Exercise 8. Consider function f (x) = √1 e−x /2 .
2π

i) Obtain the domain and the intercepts. Find the asymptotes, if any.
ii) Obtain the intervals over which the function is decreasing/increasing and, the local (global) maxima
and minima, if any.
iii) Study the concavity/convexity. Prove that it has inflection points when x = ±1.
iv) Draw the graph of the function.
Note: f (x) is the Gaussian bell curve, or density function of the standard normal distribution, and will be
studied in Statistics.

Exercise 9. Let C (q) = 4eq + e−q be the total cost function of a company for the production of a good,
where q ≥ 0 represents the number of units of the good.
i) Draw the graph of C (q) by studying the second derivative.
ii) Let q (t) = 2 ln(t + 1) be the production of the good over time t ≥ 0. Find the instantaneous rate of
change for the total cost with respect to time, dC /dt.

Exercise 10. The number of infections by a virus among the inhabitants of a city follows the following
function: h (t) = 1+(MM
−1)e−2t
where t ≥ 0 is the time (in days) and M is the total number of inhabitants
(expressed in thousands of inhabitants). Let M = 10, answer the following questions:
i) Find, if any, vertical and horizontal asymptotes and also, the intercepts.
ii) Obtain the intervals over which the function h (t) is decreasing/increasing and, in addition, the local
maxima and minima.
iii) Draw the graph of h (t) where t ≥ 0 without studying the second derivative.

Exercise 11. Let q and p be the quantity demanded and the unit price of a good, respectively. The demand
√
function is p = 7 − q. The total revenue function is R = p·q.
i) Find the quantity of good q that maximizes the R(q) function.
ii) Graph the R(q) function.
dq p
iii) Calculate h(p) = dp q , that is, the price elasticity of demand of the good. Obtain h(p). Find h (1).
Mathematics I. Topic 2 Exercises. 3

Exercise 12. The profit B (in thousands of euros) for a company that spends an amount x (in thousands
of euros) on advertising is B = −1 3 2
10 x + 6x + 400.

i) Find the amount x that the company should spend on advertising to maximize its profit.

ii) Find the quantity of money such that the growth rate of profit is maximum.

Exercise 13. Check if the function f (x) = 3x2 − 5 satisfies the conditions of the Mean Value Theorem in
the interval [−2, 0]. If so, find a point c ∈ (−2, 0) that holds the theorem.

 
1 x
Exercise 14. The cost function, in thousands of euros, in a production process is C (x) = 10 x + x+3
where x is the number of output units.
i) Analyze whether Rolle’s Theorem can be applied to C (x) in the interval [3, 6].

ii) Is there at least one global minimum for C (x) in [3, 6]? Reason your answer using an appropriate
theorem.

Exercise 15. From the graphs of the derivatives of functions, i.e. f ′ (x), that appear in Figure 1, find the
intervals over which f (x) is decreasing/increasing, its maxima and minima, the intervals over which it is
concave/convex and the inflection points.

Figure 1: Derivatives for Exercise 15.

Exercise 16. Figure 2 contains the graph of the marginal revenue: R′ (q) = dI (q) /dq, where R (q) is the
total revenue of a company from the sale of a good and q ≥ 0 is the number of units of the good.
i) Find the intervals over which R (q) is decreasing/increasing, its maxima and minima, the intervals for
concavity/convexity and the inflection points given the graph of R′ (q).

ii) If R (0) = 0 and R (q) → 0 when q → +∞, obtain the graph of R (q) from the study of the graph of
R′ (q).

iii) Let Rα,β (q) = αqeβq be total revenue function, where α > 0 and β̸=0. Find the values α and β so
′
that the graph of Rα,β (q) is equal to the graph of R′ (q).
Mathematics I. Topic 2 Exercises. 4

Figure 2: Marginal revenue for Exercise 16. In the graph R′ (0) = 15 and R′ (3) = 0.

Exercise 17. The demand function for a good is p = 14 − 3q, where q ≥ 0 represents the number of units
of the good, and p is the unit price of the good. The total cost function for a monopolist is C (q) = q 2 + 5q.
Suppose the government sets a tax of t units of money for each unit produced, then the total cost including
taxes is C1 (q) = C (q) + tq.

i) Find the quantity q ∗ produced by the monopolist who maximizes her after-tax profit function: B (q) =
pq − C1 (q). Find the maximum value of t so that q ∗ is non negative.

ii) Find the level of revenue T earned by the government as a function of t, that is, T = g (t). For what
value of t is the highest level of tax revenue obtained?

Exercise 18. The following functions each present an slant asymptote on both sides. Approximately draw
the graphs of functions without studying the second derivative.
x2 +2 x3 x3
i) f (x) = 1−x ii) f (x) = x2 +9
iii) f (x) = (1+x)2

f (x)
Note: The slant asymptote is obtained according to the expression: y = mx + n, m ̸= 0; m = lim x ;
x→±∞
n = lim (f (x) − mx).
x→±∞

Exercise 19. Consider the function f (x) = xe1/x .

i) Check that f (x) has an slant asymptote for x → ±∞.

ii) Find the intervals over which f (x) is decreasing/increasing, and find the local maxima and minima.

iii) Find the intervals over which f (x) is concave/convex, and also find the inflection points.

iv) ) Find the vertical asymptotes of f (x). Draw the graph of f (x).

2q(q+1) 5
Exercise 20. The total cost function is C (q) = q+3 + 2 where q ≥ 0 denotes the quantity of the good.

i) Calculate the slant asymptote of C (q).

ii) Draw the graph of C (q) without studying of the second derivative.
Mathematics I. Topic 2 Exercises. 5

Exercise 21. The total cost function is C (q) = aq 2 + bq + c where a, b, c > 0 and q ≥ 0 represents the
number of units of the good. The average cost function is AC (q) = C (q) /q for q > 0.

i) Find the quantity q ∗ that minimizes the function AC (q).

ii) Find the slant asymptote of AC (q).

iii) Draw on the same graph the graphs of AC (q), C ′ (q) = dC (q) /dq and the slant asymptote.

Exercise 22. Consider the density function f (x) = 41 e−|x| (1 + |x|) where x ∈ R is the daily return of a
share.

i) Obtain the domain and intercepts. Find, if any, vertical and horizontal asymptotes.

ii) Study if f (x) is differentiable at x = 0. Use the definition of derivative. Is f (x) continuous at x = 0?
Explain your answer.

iii) Obtain the intervals over which f (x) is decreasing/increasing. Find, if any, the critical points and
classify them.

iv) Draw the graph of f (x) without studying of the second derivative.

Solutions

E1: It is not differentiable in x = 3.

E2: α = 1/3, β = −4/3.

√
2x+1 3
E3: i) y = x + 1, y = 1 − x. ii) y = x − 1 + ln 2, y = 1 + ln 2 − x. iii) y = √ ,
3
y= 2 (3 − x).

E4: 1) 0. 2) −∞. 3) −∞. 4) −2/3. 5) 0. 6) 0. 7) 0. 8) ∞. 9) e−9 . 10) 0. 11) e8 . 12) 1/8.

E5: i) y = −2x + 4. ii) y = − 32 x + 10. iii) y = x. iv) y = (2x + 11)/5.

E6: i) α < 0, β = 0. ii) α = −3, β = −9.

E7: 1) D = R; intercepts: (0, 3), (1, 0) , (−3, 0); continuous; increasing in: (−∞, −5/3) and (1, +∞),
decreasing in: (−5/3, 1), local minimum at: x = 1, local maximum at: x = −5/3; inflection point at:
x = −1/3, concave in: (−∞, −1/3), convex in: (−1/3, +∞), Graph. √ √
2) D = R; intercepts:
√ (0, 0), (1,
√ 0), (−1, 0); continuous; increasing in: (−∞, −1/ 2) and (0, 1/√ 2), decreas-
ing in: (−1/ 2, 0)√and (1/ 2, +∞), local minimum at: x = 0, local maxima at: x = ±1/ 2; inflection
points at: x = ±1/ 6, Graph.
3) D = R \ {−2.2}; intercepts: (0, 0); continuous in R except at x = −2 and x = 2, where there are infinite
jump discontinuities; asymptotes: VA at x = −2 and x = 2, HA at y = 0 from the left and right; decreasing
in (−∞, −2), (−2, 2), (2, +∞), inflection point at: x = 0, concave in: (−∞, −2) and (0, 2), convex in:
(−2, 0) and (2, +∞), Graph.
4) D = R; intercepts: (0, 0); continuous; asymptotes: HA at y = 3 from the left and right; √ increasing in:
(0, +∞) , √ √ (−∞, 0), local minimum√at: x √
decreasing in: = 0, inflection points at : x = ±1/ 3, concave in:
(−∞, −1/ 3) and (1/ 3, +∞), convex in: (−1/ 3, 1/ 3), Graph.
Mathematics I. Topic 2 Exercises. 6

5) D = R; intercepts:
√ (0, 3) and (3, 0);√ continuous; asymptotes:√HA at y = 0 from√the left and right; increas-
ing in: (−∞, 3 − 10) and (3, 3 + √10), decreasing in: √ (3 − 10, 3) and (3 + 10, +∞), local minimum
at: x = 3, local maxima at: x = 3 − 10 and x = 3 + 10; Graph.
6) D = R \ {−1}; points of intersection with the axes: (0, 3) and (3, 0); continuous in D, but at x = −1 it
is discontinuous by infinite jump; asymptotes: VA at x = −1, HA on the right at y = 1, HA on the left at
y = −1; increasing in: (3, +∞), decreasing in: (−∞, −1) and (−1, 3), local minimum in: x = 3, concave
in: (−∞, −1) and (3, +∞), convex in: (−1, , 3), Graph.
7) D = R; points of intersection with the axes: (0, −3) and (3, 0); continuous; asymptotes: HA on the right
at y = 0; increasing in: (−∞, 4), decreasing in: (4, +∞), maximum local at: x = 4; inflection point at:
x = 5, concave in: −∞, 5) , convex in: (5, +∞), Graph.
8) D = √ R; intercepts:(0,
√ 1), (−1, 0), (1, 0) ; continues;
√ asymptotes:
√ y = 0 is a left HA; increasing√in:
(−1 − 2, −1 + 2), decreasing√in: (−∞, −1 − 2) and (−1 + 2, +∞), √ local minimum at: x = −1
√ − 2,
local maximum
√ at: x = −1 + 2 ;
√ inflection √points at: x = −2 ± 3, concave at: (−∞, −2 − 3) and
(−2 + 3, +∞), convex at: (−2 − 3, −2 + 3), Graph. √ √
9) D = √ [−2, 2]; √intercepts: (−2, 0), (0, 0), (2, 0) ;
√ continue; increasing in: (− √2, 2), decreasing in:
(−2, − 2) and ( 2, 2), local minimum at: x = − 2, local maximum at: x = 2; inflection point at:
x = 0, concave in:(0, 2), convex at:(−2, 0), Graph.
10) D = (−∞, 4]; intercepts: (0, 0), (4, 0); continuous; increasing in: (−∞, 8/3), decreasing in: (8/3, 4),
local maximum at: x = 8/3; concave in: D, Graph.
11) D = R; intercepts: (0, 1/2); continuous; asymptotes: y = 1 is HA on the right, y = 0 is HA on the left;
decreasing in: R, inflection point at: x = 0, concave in: (0, +∞), convex in: (−∞, 0), Graph.
12) D = R \ {0}; continuous except at x = 0, with asymptotic discontinuity; asymptotes: VA at x = 0;
increasing in: (−1, 0) and (1, +∞), decreasing in: (−∞, −1) and (0, 1), local minima at: x = −1 and x = 1,
convex in:(−∞, 0) and (0, +∞) , Graph.
13) D = R; intercepts: (0, 0); continuous; increasing in: R++ , decreasing in: R−− , local minimum at: x = 0,
inflection points at: x = ±1, concave in: (−∞, −1) √ and (1, +∞),√ convex in: (−1, 1), Graph.
14) D = (−∞, −3) ∪ (1, +∞); intercepts: (−1 − 5), 0, (−1 + 5), 0 ; continuous in D; asymptotes: VA at
x = −3, VA at x = 1; increasing in: (1, +∞), decreasing in: (−∞, −3), concave in: (−∞, −3) and (1, +∞),
Graph.
15) D = R; intercepts: (0, 0); continuous; asymptotes: y = 1 is HA on the right, y = −1 is HA on the left;
increasing in: R, inflection point at: x = 0, concave in: R++ , convex in: R−− , Graph.
16) D = R; intercepts: (0, 0); continuous; asymptotes: y = −3 is HA on the right, y = 3 is HA on the left;
decreasing in: D, inflection point at: x = 0, concave in: R−− , convex in: R−− , Graph.

√
E8: i) D = R; intercept: (0, 1/ 2π); y = 0 is a HA on the left and on the right. ii) It is increasing for x < 0
and decreasing for x > 0; x = 0 is a local and global maximum. iii) It is convex for x < −1 and x > 1, it is
concave for −1 < x < 1. iv) Graph.

E9: i) D = R+ ; intercept: (0, 5); it is continuous; it has no asymptotes; it is increasing; it is convex; Graph.
ii) dC/dt = 8(t + 1)2 − 2/(t + 1)3 .

E10: i) D = R+ ; y = 10 is a HA on the right; the only intercept is (0, 1). ii) it is increasing, so h(0) = 1 is
a global minimum. iii) Graph.

E11: i) q = 14/3. ii) It is concave in D = [0, 7], Graph. iii) h(p) = −2p2 /(7 − p2 ), h(1) = −1/3.

E12: i) x = 40. ii) x = 20.

E13: c = −1.

E14: i) Yes, it can be applied. ii) The global minimum does exist (Weierstrass’s theorem).
Mathematics I. Topic 2 Exercises. 7

E15: Graph 1: continuous in −3 < x < 4; decreasing in −3 < x < −2, 2 < x < 3; increasing in −2 < x < 2,
3 < x < 4; local minima at x = −2 and x = 3; local maximum at x = 2; convex in −3 < x < −1/2 and
5/2 < x < 4; concave in −1/2 < x < 5/2. Graph 2: continuous in −5/2 < x < 0 and 0 < x < 5/2; increasing
in −5/2 < x < 0; decreasing in 0 < x < 5/2; x = 0 can be a VA; convex in −5/2 < x < 0 and 0 < x < 5/2.

E16: i) Continuous in (0, 22.5); increasing in (0, 3); decreasing in (3, 22.5); q = 3 is a local (and global)
maximum; concave in (0, 6); convex in (6, 22.5); q = 6 is turning point. ii) Graph. iii) α = 15, β = −1/3.

E17: i) 9. ii) t = 9/2.

E18: i) D = R \ {1}; continuous in D; slant asymptote: y = −x − 1; finite √ jump discontinuity

√ at x = 1;
(0, 2)√is the only
√ point of intersection with the axes;
√ decreasing in x < 1 − 3 and x√> 1 + 3; increasing in
(1 − 3, 1 + 3) \ {1}; local minimum at f (1 − 3) > 0; local maximum at f (1 + 3) < 0; Graph.
ii) D = R; continues; intercept: (0, 0); slant asymptote: y = x; increasing; Graph.
iii) D = R \ {−1}; intercept: (0, 0); VA at x = −1 (asymptotic discontinuity); slant asymptote: y = x − 2;
increasing in x < −3, −1 < x < 0, x > 0; decreasing in −3 < x < −1; local maximum at x = −3; concave
in −3 < x < −1, −1 < x < 0; convex in x > 0; Graph.

E19: i) Slant asymptote: y = x + 1. ii) Increasing in x < 0, x > 1; decreasing in 0 < x < 1; x = 1 is a local
minimum. iii) Concave in x < 0; convex in x > 0. iv) x = 0 is VA on the right (not on the left); Graph.

E20: i) c = 2q − 3/2. ii) Graph.

E21: i) q ∗ = c/a. ii) y = aq + b. iii) Graph for a = 1, b = 1, c = 4.

p

E22: i) D = R; intercept: (0, 1/4); y = 0 is HA on the left and right. ii) It is derivable at x = 0 and is
continuous. iii) Increasing in x < 0; decreasing in x > 0; f (0) = 1/4 is a global maximum. iv) Graph