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Extra Unit B Practice 1 (Solutions)

This document provides practice problems for Math 118, focusing on concepts such as elasticity, Lagrange multipliers, and extrema of functions. It includes specific problems related to marginal costs, total cost functions, and multivariable functions, along with formulas and tests for critical points. The practice aims to prepare students for assessments by covering various mathematical applications and derivative concepts.

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21 views6 pages

Extra Unit B Practice 1 (Solutions)

This document provides practice problems for Math 118, focusing on concepts such as elasticity, Lagrange multipliers, and extrema of functions. It includes specific problems related to marginal costs, total cost functions, and multivariable functions, along with formulas and tests for critical points. The practice aims to prepare students for assessments by covering various mathematical applications and derivative concepts.

Uploaded by

fiorellalimaa
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Math 118 Extra Unit B practice 1

The problems that follow are examples of questions I’ve asked on assessments in past semesters. They are
meant to give you a sense of the style of problems on assessments, but not necessarily the content of the
problems. For example, just because a particular concept doesn’t appear in these practice problems doesn’t
mean that you aren’t responsible for knowing it for our assessments. You’re responsible for knowing anything
in the notes, the prelims, and the practice problems. Below you’ll find the formulas that will be provided
for you for Unit B material.

Formulas

• Elasticity: • Lagrange multipliers:

p 0
E(p) = q (p) fx (x, y) = gx (x, y)
q(p)
fy (x, y) = gy (x, y)
• Linear approximation:
g(x, y) = c
L(x, y) = f (a, b)+fx (a, b)(x a)+fy (a, b)(y b)

• Second derivative test:

D(a, b) = fxx (a, b)fyy (a, b) fxy (a, b)2


If D(a, b) < 0, then (a, b) is a saddle point.
If D(a, b) > 0 and fxx (a, b) > 0, then (a, b)
is a local minimum.
If D(a, b) > 0 and fxx (a, b) < 0, then (a, b)
is a local maximum.
If D(a, b) = 0 then the test is inconclusive.
B1 - Extrema of functions

Suppose a company’s marginal costs are given by

2q 2 5q + 32
M C(q) =
q+2

(a) Find all positive values of q at which M C(q) has a critical point.

(b) Classify each critical point you found in part (a) as a local maximum, a local minimum, or neither.

(c) If b is a positive value of q at which M C(q) has a critical point, which of the following are true of the
total cost function, C(q), at q = b? Circle all that apply.
A. C(q) has an inflection point at q = b.
B. C(q) has a local minimum at q = b.
C. C(q) has a local maximum at q = b.
D. C(q) has its steepest slope at q = b.
E. C(q) has its shallowest slope at q = b.
(d) What are the global maximum and minimum of M C(q) on the interval [0, 8]?
B2 - Further applications of the derivative

(a) A company’s total cost curve, C(q), is shown


on the graph to the right.

(i) Use the graph to estimate a quantity q at


which average costs are minimized. Draw
a sketch on the graph indicating how you
obtained your estimate.

(ii) What is value of C 0 (q) at the quantity from


part (a)?

(b) Suppose the demand curve q(p) for a product satisfies the following:
• q(5) = 25 and q 0 (5) = 4
• The elasticity of demand at p = 10 is 1.5.

(i) What is the elasticity of demand for the product at p = 5?

(ii) If the price is increased from p = 10 to p = 12, by what percent (approximately) do we expect
the demand to drop?
B3 - Multivariable functions

(a) The graph below shows three di↵erent cross sections for a production function Q(L, K) for L = 1,
L = 4 and L = 9.

(i) If the company currently owns 4 units of cap-


ital (i.e. K = 4), what is the change in Q
when the company increases L from 1 to 9?
Label the points you used on the graph with
“X’s”.

Q=

(ii) If the company employs 4 units of labor (i.e.


L = 4), what is the change in Q when the
company increases K from 1 to 4? Label the
points you used on the graph with “O’s”.

Q=

(b) Consider the contour diagram below for the quantity of Good A demanded, qA , as a function of the
price of Good A, pA , and the price of Good B, pB .

(i) Suppose that currently the price of Good A


is 8, and the price of Good B is 3. If the
price of Good B increases to 7, what price
for Good A will keep the demand for Good
A unchanged? Label the points you used on
the graph with “X’s.”

(ii) Suppose the price of Good B is 9, and the


demand for Good A is 1. How much would
the price in Good A need to decrease so that
the demand for Good A increases to 3? Label
the points you used on the graph with “O’s”.
B4 - Partial derivatives

(a) Consider the production function Q(L, K)


Capital (K)
whose values are given in the table to the right.

(i) Use the table to estimate QL (20, 10). 5 10 15

10 23 25 26

Labor (L)
20 41 45 48

30 59 65 68

(ii) Assuming that QK (20, 10) = 0.6, use linear approximation to approximate Q(23, 8).

2
(b) Let f (x, y) = ex y

(i) Find fx .

(ii) Find fyx .


B5 - Extrema of multivariable functions

(a) The function f (x, y) = x3 3y 3 + x2 y + x + 35y has a critical point at (1, 2) (you don’t need to check
this). Classify this critical point as a local maximum, a local minimum, or a saddle point.

(b) If a company produces q1 of Good 1 and q2 of Good 2, they make a profit given by

⇡(q1 , q2 ) = 10q1 q12 + q1 q2 + 70q2 4q22

(i) If the company is limited by a production quota, so the total quantity of Good 1 and Good 2
together must equal 16, how much of each good should the company produce to maximize profit?

(ii) If the quota increases to 18, estimate the change in the maximum achievable profit.

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