College of Engineering, Pune

Engineering Mathematics I
Solutions to Note 8 Problems
Q.1 Suppose f, g, h are continuous on [a, b] and dierentiable on (a, b). Prove
that there exists c (a, b) such that

(c) g

(c) h

(c)
f(a) g(a) h(a)
f(b) g(b) h(b)

= 0.
Solution: Dene (x) by
(x) =

f(x) g(x) h(x)

f(a) g(a) h(a)
f(b) g(b) h(b)

Then is a linear combination of f, g, h and so

(x) =

(x) g

(x) h

(x)
f(a) g(a) h(a)
f(b) g(b) h(b)

Also, (a) = 0 = (b). Apply Rolles theorem to to get the result.

Q.2 Using the last exercise prove Cauchys Mean Value Theorem viz., if f, g
are continuous on [a, b], dierentiable on (a, b) and g(b) = g(a) then there
exists c (a, b) such that
f

(c)
g

(c)
=
f(b) f(a)
g(b) g(a)
. Is this result more general
than Lagranges MVT?
Solution: If we take h(x) 1 in the last exercise, we get

(c) g

(c) 0
f(a) g(a) 1
f(b) g(b) 1

= 0.
for some c (a, b). Expanding the determinant and dividing by g(b) g(a) gives
Cauchys theorem. If we further take g(x) = x, we get Lagranges MVT. So, in
this sense, Cauchys theorem is more general than LMVT. But the result of the
last exercise required only Rolles theorem which is a special case of LMVT. So,
LMVT implies CMVT through Rolles theorem and the last exercise. Hence both
the theorems are on par in terms of logical strength.
1
Q.3 Can the result of the last exercise be proved by applying Lagranges
MVT to f and g and taking the ratio?
Solution: No. In fact, thinking that this is possible is a very common slip of logic.
The catch is that if we apply LMVT separately to f and g, the mean values we
get, say c
1
and c
2
need not be the same. As an actual example, suppose f(x) = x
3
,
g(x) = x
2
and [a, b] = [0, 1] Then c
1
(0, 1) is the point
1

3
while c
2
=
1
2
. The
point c given by CMVT is
2
3
.
Q.4 Prove that any two antiderivatives of a function on an interval dier by
a constant. (Consequently, in order to identify the indenite integral

f(x)dx, it suces to nd any one antiderivative, say, F or f. Then

f(x)dx is precisely the set of all functions of the form F +c where c is

a constant which can take any (real) value. Therefore c is often called
the constant of integration. Note that this is just a name. We are yet
to study integration!)
Solution: Suppose both F(x) and G(x) are antiderivatives of a function f(x)
on an interval [a, b]. Let H(x) = F(x) G(x). Then H

(x) = F

(x) G

(x) =
f(x) f(x) = 0 for all x [a, b]. So, as an application of the LMVT, H is a
constant function.
*Q.5 Suppose f is continuous on [a, b] and dierentiable on (a, b). Assume
further that f(b) f(a) = b a. Prove that for every positive integer n,
there exist distinct points c
1
, c
2
, . . . , c
n
in (a, b) such that f

(c
1
) + f

(c
2
) +
+ f

(c
n
) = n.
Solution: Divide the interval [a, b] into n equal parts by points x
0
, x
1
, . . . , x
n
where x
0
= 0 and x
i
x
i1
= (b a)/n for i = 1, 2, . . . , n. Applying the MLMVT
ro the interval [x
i1
, x
i
] gives a point c
i
(x
i1
, x
i
) such that
f(x
i
) f(x
i1
) =
b a
n
f

(c
i
)
for i = 1, 2, . . . , n. Adding these n equations gives the result. Note that for i = j,
the intervals (x
i1
, x
i
) and (x
j1
, x
j
) are mutually disjoint. So c
i
= c
j
. Hence the
points c
1
, c
2
, . . . , c
n
are all distinct.
More generally, suppose we drop the hypothesis that f(b) f(a) = b a. Now
consider a partition a = x
0
< x
1
< x
2
< . . . < x
n1
< x
n
= b of the interval
2
[a, b] into n subintervals of possibly dierent lengths. Denote x
i
x
i1
by x
i
for
i = 1, 2, . . . , n. Then applying LMVT to each of the intervals [x
i1
, x
i
] we get some
points c
i
(x
i1
, x
i
) for which
f

(c
1
)x
1
+ f

(c
2
)x
2
+ . . . + f

(c
n
)x
n
= f(b) f(a)
The L.H.S. is one of the possible Riemann sums of the function f

(x) on the
interval [a, b]. As the partition gets ner and ner (that means the lengths of all
subintervals tend to 0, which in particular also implies that n ), the L.H.S.
of the equality above tends to the denite integral

b
a
f

(x)dx while the R.H.S.

remains constant. Thus we get that

b
a
f

(x)dx = f(b) f(a)

In essence, this is the fundamental theorem of calculus.
Q.6 Prove that between any two zeros of a dierentiable function, there is
at least one zero of its derivative. Deduce that a polynomial of degree
n can never have more than n roots.
Solution: The rst part is a direct application of Rolles theorem. For the second
part apply induction on n. The case n = 1 is trivially true. For the inductive
step, note that if f has degree n, then f

is of degree n 1 and hence by the

induction hypothesis, has at most n roots. Now suppose f has more than n roots,
say x
1
< x
2
< . . . , < x
n
< x
n+1
. Then by the rst part, f

has at least one root in

each of the intervals (x
i
, x
i+1
). As these intervals are disjoint, these roots of f

are
distinct. So f

has at least n roots, a contradiction. This completes the induction.

Q.7 Let f(x) = x +sin x. Prove that f is strictly increasing on IR even though
its derivative vanishes at some points. (More generally, show that this
holds for any function f whose derivative is non-negative everywhere
and vanishes at only nitely many points in any closed interval.)
Solution: f

(x) = 1 + cos x 0 for all x. So, by LMVT, f is increasing on

(, ). To prove that it is strictly increasing, suppose a, b IR with a < b. The
only zeros of f

are of the form (4n 1)/2 for n ZZ. So the interval (a, b) can
contain at most nitely many of them, say x
1
, x
2
, . . . , x
r
, in an ascending order.
Then f

> 0 in each of the intervals (a, x

1
), (x
1
, x
2
), . . . , (x
r1
, x
r
) and (x
r
, b).
Hence by LMVT,
f(a) < f(x
1
) < f(x
2
) < . . . < f(x
r1
< f(x
r
) < f(b)
3
which shows f(a) < f(b).
Q.8 Let f(x) =
1
2
x + x
2
sin
1
x
for x = 0 and f(0) = 0. Prove that f

(0) =
1
2
> 0
but f is not monotonically increasing in any interval containing 0.
Solution: The function x
2
sin(1/x) is dierentiable everywhere, including at 0, if
it is dened as 0 at 0. Also its derivative at 0 is 0. This proves the rst part.
However, for x = 0 we have
f

(x) =
1
2
+ 2x sin(1/x) cos(1/x)
As x 0, the middle term tends to 0. But cos(1/x) takes values 1 at all points
of the form x = 1/2n and the value 1 at points of the form x = 1/(2n + 1)
for any n IN. So every neighbourhood of 0 contains points where f

is positive
as well as points where it is negative. Hence f cannot be either monotonically
increasing or monotonically decreasing throughout this neighbourhood.
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