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Recall The Equation of The Tangent Line of A Curve at The Point

The document discusses the equation of the tangent line for a curve and its application in linear approximation. It provides examples of estimating values using tangent lines and discusses the concept of differentials in calculus. Additionally, it includes practical examples related to volume and area calculations, demonstrating how to estimate changes and errors in measurements.

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Jeremy Solteo Legaspi
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8 views11 pages

Recall The Equation of The Tangent Line of A Curve at The Point

The document discusses the equation of the tangent line for a curve and its application in linear approximation. It provides examples of estimating values using tangent lines and discusses the concept of differentials in calculus. Additionally, it includes practical examples related to volume and area calculations, demonstrating how to estimate changes and errors in measurements.

Uploaded by

Jeremy Solteo Legaspi
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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Equation of Tangent Line

Recall the equation of the tangent line of a curve y = f (x) at the


point x = a.

The general equation of the tangent line is

y = La (x) := f (a) + f 0 (a)(x a).

That is the point-slope form of a line through the point (a, f (a))
with slope f 0 (a).
Linear Approximation
It follows from the geometric picture as well as the equation
f (x) f (a)
lim = f 0 (a)
x!a x a
f (x) f (a)
which means that x a ⇡ f 0 (a) or
f (x) ⇡ f (a) + f 0 (a)(x a) = La (x)
for x close to a. Thus La (x) is a good approximation of f (x) for
x near a.

If we write x = a + x and let x be sufficiently small this


becomes f (a + x) f (a) ⇡ f 0 (a) x. Writing also
y = f := f (a + x) f (a) this becomes
y= f ⇡ f 0 (a) x

In words: for small x the change y in y if one goes from x to


x + x is approximately equal to f 0 (a) x.
Visualization of Linear Approximation
p
Example: a) Find the linear approximation of f (x) = x at
x = 16. p
b) Use it to approximate 15.9.
Solution:

a) We have to compute the equation of the tangent line at x = 16.


d 1/2 1 1/2
f 0 (x) = x = x
dx 2
1
0
f (16) = 2 16 1/2 = 12 · p116 = 18
L(x) = f 0 (a)(x a) + f (a)
1
p
= 8 (x 16) + 16 = 18 x 2 + 4 = 18 x + 2
p
b) 15.9 = f (15.9)
1
⇡ L(15.9) = 8 · 15.9 + 2 = 18 (16 .1) + 2 = 4 1
80 = 319
80 .
Example: Estimate cos( ⇡4 + 0.01) cos( ⇡4 ).
Solution:
Let f (x) = cos(x). Then we have to find f = f (a + x) f (a)
for a = ⇡4 and x = .01 (which is small).
Using linear approximation we have:
f ⇡ f 0 (a) · x
⇡
= sin( ) · .01 (since f 0 (x) = sin x)
p 4 p
2 1 2
= · =
2 100 200
Example: The radius of a sphere is increased from 10 cm to
10.1 cm. Estimate the change in volume.
Solution:
V = 43 ⇡r 3 (volume of a sphere)
✓ ◆
dV d 4 3 4
= ⇡r = ⇡ · 3r 2 = 4⇡r 2
dr dr 3 3
dV
V ⇡ · r = 4⇡r 2 · r
dr
1
= 4⇡ · 102 · (10.1 10) = 400⇡ · = 40⇡
10
The volume of the sphere is increased by 40⇡ cm3 .
Example: The radius of a disk is measured to be 10 ± .1 cm (error
estimate). Estimate the maximum error in the approximate area of
the disk.
Solution:
A = ⇡r 2 (area of a disk)
dA d
= (⇡ · r 2 ) = 2⇡r
dr dr
dA
A⇡ · r = 2⇡r · r
dr
1
= 2⇡ · 10 · (±0.1) = ±20⇡ · = ±2⇡
10
The area of the disk has approximately a maximal error of 2⇡ cm2 .
Example: The dimensions of a rectangle are measured to be
10 ± 0.1 by 5 ± 0.2 inches.
What is the approximate uncertainty in the area measured?
Solution: We have A = xy with x = 10 ± 0.1 and y = 5 ± 0.2.
We estimate the measurement error x A with respect to the
variable x and the error y A with respect to the variable y .
dA d
= (xy ) = y
dx dx
dA d
= (xy ) = x
dy dy
dA
xA ⇡ · x =y· x
dx
dA
yA ⇡ · y =x· y
dy
The total estimated uncertainty is:
A= xA + yA =y· x +x · y
A = 5 · (±.1) + 10 · (±.2) = ±.5 + ±2.0 = ±2.5
The uncertainty in the area is approximately of 2.5 inches2 .
Di↵erentials
Those are a the most murky objects in Calculus I. The way they
are usually defined in in calculus books is difficult to understand for
a Mathematician and maybe for students, too.

Remember that we have


y dy
⇡ = f 0 (x).
x dx
The idea is to consider dy and dx as infinitesimal small numbers
such that dy 0
dx is not just an approximation but equals f (a) and one
rewrites this as
dy = f 0 (x) · dx.

This obviously makes no sense since the only “infinitesimal small


number” which I know in calculus is 0 which gives the true but
useless equation 0 = f 0 (x) · 0 and the nonsense equation 00 = f 0 (x).
So the official explanation is that

dy = f 0 (x) · dx

describes the linear approximation for the tangent line to f (x) at


the point x which gives indeed this equation. Then dx and dy are
numbers satisfying this equation. One problem is that one does
not like to keep x fixed and f 0 (x) varies with x. But how to
understand the dependence of dx and dy on x?

The symbolic explanation is that

dy = f 0 (x) · dx

is an equation between the old variable x and the new variables dx


and dy but we never will plug in numbers for dx and dy .
dy
Note that dx = f 0 (x) makes sense with both interpretations for
dx 6= 0.
For applications (substitution in integrals) we will usually need the
second interpretation
2
Example: Express dx in terms of dy for the function y = e x .
Solution:
dy 2
= e x · 2x
dx
2
dy = e x · 2x · dx
1 dy
dx = x 2 · dy =
e · 2x 2xy

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