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GM Tutorial Week 3 Problems

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13 views1 page

GM Tutorial Week 3 Problems

Uploaded by

faraxe1409
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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MA134 Geometry and Motion: Week 3 Tutorial

Material Covered: We study calculus of parameterised curves f(t) = ( f 1 (t), f 2 (t), f 3 (t)) : I → R3 .
We have interpreted f0 (t) as velocity and f00 (t) as acceleration. We have also done integration,
Rb
for instance, the arc length of the curve is a kf0 (t)k dt.
Learning outcomes:
• differentiation for vector-valued functions,
• rules for differentiating sums, products and compositions of vector- and scalar-valued
functions,
• the relationship between differentiation and being tangent to a curve,
• the arc-length of a curve.
Exercises:

1) (a) We want to prove that the arc-length is independent of parametrisation. Set up a


mathematical statement that you need to prove.
(b) Prove that the arc-length is independent of parametrisation.

2) The catenary is the curve of the free-hanging rope. Its equation is y = a cosh( x/a) where
a > 0 is a real number.
(a) Find an equation of the tangent line to the catenary at the point where x = 1. Is this
equation unique?
(b) Find the arc length of the catenary between the points with x = 0 and x = 2.

3) Consider the parametrised 3D curve

2 1
f(t) = ( x (t), y(t), z(t)) = (t2 , t3 , t4 ), t ∈ R
3 2

(a) Find equations of the tangent line to this curve at the point where t = 1. Is this set of
equations unique?
(b) Find the arc length of this curve between the points with t = 0 and t = 3.

4) Consider a 3D curve f(t). Prove that it lies completely on a sphere with centre A if and
only if f0 (t) • f(t) = f0 (t) • A.

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