MAM1004F - Tutorial 1

ˆ Work in groups of three to five and listen to each other. You will learn more from your peers
than anyone else.
ˆ Ask for help! If you’re stuck put up your hand to call over a tutor. Be ready to explain what
you’ve already tried. The tutors will not give you a complete solution, but they will push you in
the right direction.
ˆ You don’t need to hand anything in, but if you don’t finish the tutorial now, work through it at
home and finish it before next week’s tutorial. Don’t let the work pile up – it becomes very difficult
to catch up.
ˆ This first tutorial is a little unusual since we haven’t covered any work in class yet. It includes
some puzzles to test your logical thinking and reasoning skills. Your answers should be something
that you, your friends, and the tutors can read and understand. For this tutorial especially, make
sure that you check your answers with a tutor!

1. Read the following problem, then answer it immediately without writing anything down – just say the first number
that comes to mind.
Together, a bottle and a cork costs R11. The bottle costs R10 more than the cork. How much does the cork cost?
Now answer the question slowly and carefully, writing something down. Did you get the same answer? If you
didn’t you should learn the following important lesson: don’t blindly trust your intuition.
2. Three crates of fruit have had their labels mixed up so that they are all incorrectly labelled. The first crate is
labelled “Apples”, the second crate is labelled “Oranges” and the third crate is labelled “Apples and Oranges”.
By taking one piece of fruit from one crate we can tell what all the crates contain. How?
3. You’re exploring a magical island inhabitated by Knights (who always tell the truth) and Knaves (who always lie)
(a) You meet two men at a riverside. One says “We are both Knaves.” Decide who (if any!) of them are Knights.
(b) You meet two women in a clearing. The first says “We are both the same.” The second woman says “No,
we are different.” Decide who of them are Knights.
4. Read the following statements and their proofs (reasons for the statement). Decide if you agree with the statement:
is the statement true or false? Also decide if you agree with the reasons given for each statement.
This is a very important distinction to make. A statement may be true, but the proof supporting it might not be
valid.

(a) Statement: All numbers bigger than 10 are even.

Proof: There are infinitely many even numbers bigger than ten, e.g. twelve and fourteen and twenty-eight
and one hundred. Therefore the statement is true.
(b) Statement: If you square any odd number and divide the answer by 4, then the remainder is 1.
Proof: If you take 3 and square it you get 9. If you divide 9 by 4 the remainder is 1. Therefore the statement
is true.
(c) Statement: If x(y − 1) = 3 then x = 3 and y = 2.
Proof: Let x = 3. Then 3(y − 1) = 3 ⇒ y − 1 = 1 ⇒ y = 2. Now let y = 2. Then x(2 − 1) = 3 ⇒ x(1) =
3 ⇒ x = 3. The statement is true.

Whatever you decide about each of the statements above, write down what you think are acceptable reasons for
your decision.
5. Keep the examples from the previous question in mind when you answer the following.

(a) What is necessary to prove a statement?

(b) What is necessary to disprove a statement?
√
6. In this course we will use the square root sign · to represent only the positive square root. With that in mind,
are the following statements true or false?

1
 √
(a) 9 = 3 and −3
√
(b) 9=3
√
(c) 9 ̸= −3
(d) If x2 = 9 then x = ±3

Why do you think it’s important that the square root sign represents only the positive square root?

Recall that a function is a relationship between two sets (collections/groups/lists) such that for every element (object/item/entry)
in the first set (the domain) there is exactly one associated element in the second set.

7. SANRAL draws up a database of license plate numbers and owners to help collect e-tolls. Does this database
represent a function? Motivate your answer – there may be more than one correct answer.
8. The South African Weather Service keeps a historical record of the temperature in Cape Town. Is the relationship
between the date and the temperature a function? What about the relationship between the temperature and
the date? What sorts of relationships are functions in both directions?
9. A high-school student wants to find all the values of x that satisfy the inequality
x+3
< 1.
x−2
They write the following:
x+3
<1⇒x+3<x−2 (1)
x−2
⇒ 3 < −2 (2)

They conclude that this is impossible, and so there are no values of x satisfying the inequality.
Do you think that the students work is correct?
0
Notice that x = −3 satisfies the inequality since −5 < 1. Find the error in the student’s solution and provide
your own answer to the problem.
10. For each of the functions below write down the range of the function, and largest set of values that could be its
domain. Evaluate the function at the given points.

(a) f (x) = 3x + 5; f (0), f (2), f (−7)

√
(b) h(t) = 2t2 − 8; h(−4), h(3)

11. The population of a bee colony (in thousands of bees) is given by the following expression
35
P (t) = 60 − .
t+1
The variable t represents time in years.

(a) How big is the bee colony when t = 0?

(b) What happens to the bee population as t gets bigger and bigger? (Mathematicians often write “t gets bigger
and bigger” as “t → ∞”. We will meet this notation again later in the course.)
(c) Once a colony has more than 50,000 bees it splits in two. How long will it take before this happens?