84

Chapter 1

Functions, Graphs, and Limits

CHAPTER SUMMARY AND REVIEW PROBLEMS

IMPORTANT TERMS, SYMBOLS,
AND FORMULAS

Function
Functional notation: f(x)
Domain and range of a function
Independent and dependent variables
Composition of functions: g(h(x))
Graph of a function: the points (x, f(x))
x and y intercepts
Polynomial
Rational function
Linear function; constant rate of change
Slope: m 

y y2  y1

x x2  x1

Slope-intercept formula: y  mx  b
Point-slope formula: y  y0  m(x  x0)
Criteria for lines to be parallel or perpendicular
Direct proportionality: Q  kx
Inverse proportionality: Q 

k
x

Joint proportionality: Q  kxy

Market equilibrium; law of supply and demand
Limit of a function
Continuous function
Discontinuity
Continuity of polynomials and rational functions
Intermediate value property

REVIEW PROBLEMS

1. Specify the domain of each of the following functions:

(a) f(x)  x2  2x  6

Chapter 1 Review

Chapter Summary and Review Problems

85

x3
x2  x  2
(c) f(x)  x2  9
(b) f(x) 

2. As advances in technology result in the production of increasingly powerful and

compact calculators, the price of calculators currently on the market drops. Suppose that x months from now, the price of a certain model will be P(x) 
30
40 
dollars.
x1
(a) What will be the price 5 months from now?
(b) By how much will the price drop during the fifth month?
(c) When will the price be $43?
(d) What happens to the price in the long run (as x becomes very large)?
3. Find the composite function g(h(x)).
(a) g(u)  u2  2u  1, h(x)  1  x
1
, h(x)  x  2
(b) g(u) 
2u  1
(c) g(u)  1  u, h(x)  2x  4
4. (a) Find f(x  2) if f(x)  x2  x  4.
2
.
(b) Find f(x2  1) if f(x)  x 
x1
(c) Find f(x  1)  f(x) if f(x)  x2.
5. Find functions h(x) and g(u) such that f(x)  g(h(x)).
(a) f(x)  (x2  3x  4)5
5
(b) f(x)  (3x  1)2 
2(3x  2)3
6. An environmental study of a certain community suggests that the average daily
level of smog in the air will be Q(p)  0.5p  19.4 units when the population
is p thousand. It is estimated that t years from now, the population will be p(t) 
8  0.2t2 thousand.
(a) Express the level of smog in the air as a function of time.
(b) What will the smog level be 3 years from now?
(c) When will the smog level reach 5 units?
7. Find the value of c for which the curve y  3x2  2x  c passes through the
point (2, 4).

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Chapter 1

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8. Graph the following equations:

(a) y  x2  2x  8
(b) y  3  4x  2x2
(c) x2  y2  2x  y  3
9. The consumer demand for a commodity is D(p)  50p  800 units per month
when the market price is p dollars per unit.
(a) Graph this demand function.
(b) Express consumers total monthly expenditure for the community as a function of p and draw the graph.
(c) Use the graph in part (b) to estimate the market price at which the total expenditure for the commodity is greatest.
10. A private college in the southwest has launched a fund-raising campaign. Suppose
10x
that college officials estimate that it will take f(x) 
weeks to
150  x
reach x% of their goal.
(a) Sketch the relevant portion of the graph of this function.
(b) How long will it take to reach 50% of the campaigns goal?
(c) How long will it take to reach 100% of the goal?
11. Find the slope and y intercept of the given line and draw the graph.
(a) y  3x  2
(b) 5x  4y  20
(c) 2y  3x  0
x y
(d)   4
3 2
12. Find equations for the following lines:
(a) Slope 5 and y intercept (0, 4)
(b) Slope 2 and contains (1, 3)

2
3
(d) Contains (5, 4) and is parallel to 2x  y  3
(e) Contains (1, 3) and is perpendicular to 5x  3y  7
(c) x intercept (3, 0) and y intercept 0, 

13. Find an equation for the perpendicular bisector of the line segment joining (2,
3) and (4, 1). [Hint: The midpoint of the segment is (1, 2).]

Chapter 1 Review

Chapter Summary and Review Problems

87

14. When an automobile is being driven at v miles per hour, the average driver
requires D feet of visibility to stop safely, where D  0.065v2  0.148v. Sketch
the graph of D(v).
15. Since the beginning of the year, the price of unleaded gasoline has been increasing at a constant rate of 2 cents per gallon per month. By June first, the price had
reached $1.20 per gallon.
(a) Express the price of unleaded gasoline as a function of time and draw the
graph.
(b) What was the price at the beginning of the year?
(c) What will be the price on October first?
16. The circulation of a newspaper is increasing at a constant rate. Three months ago
the circulation was 3,200. Today it is 4,400.
(a) Express the circulation as a function of time and draw the graph.
(b) What will be the circulation 2 months from now?
17. Find the points of intersection (if any) of the given pair of curves and draw the
graphs.
(a) y  3x  5 and y  2x  10
(b) y  x  7 and y  2  x
2
2
(c) y  x  1 and y  1  x
(d) y  x2 and y  15  2x
24
(e) y  2 and y  3x
x
18. A manufacturer can produce bookcases at a cost of $80 apiece. Sales figures indicate that if the bookcases are sold for x dollars apiece, approximately
50  x will be sold each month. Express the manufacturers monthly profit as a
function of the selling price x, draw the graph, and estimate the optimal selling
price.
19. A retailer can obtain cameras from the manufacturer at a cost of $50 apiece. The
retailer has been selling the cameras at the price of $80 apiece, and at this price,
consumers have been buying 40 cameras a month. The retailer is planning to lower
the price to stimulate sales and estimates that for each $5 reduction in the price,
10 more cameras will be sold each month. Express the retailers monthly profit
from the sale of the cameras as a function of the selling price. Draw the graph
and estimate the optimal selling price.
20. A cylindrical can with no top is to be constructed for 80 cents. The cost of the
material used for the bottom is 3 cents per square inch, and the cost of the material used for the curved side is 2 cents per square inch. Express the volume of the
can as a function of its radius.

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Chapter 1

Functions, Graphs, and Limits

21. A manufacturing firm has received an order to make 400,000 souvenir silver
medals commemorating the 30th anniversary of the landing of Apollo 11 on the
moon. The firm owns several machines, each of which can produce 200 medals
per hour. The cost of setting up the machines to produce the medals is $80 per
machine, and the total operating cost is $5.76 per hour. Express the cost of producing the 400,000 medals as a function of the number of machines used. Draw
the graph and estimate the number of machines the firm should use to minimize
cost.
22. A businessman maintains inventory over a particular 30-day month as follows:
days 19
30 units
days 1015 17 units
days 1623 12 units
days 2430 steadily decreasing from 12 units to 0 units
Sketch the graph of the inventory as a function of time t (days). At what times is
the graph discontinuous?
23. A manufacturer can sell a certain product for $80 per unit. Total cost consists of
a fixed overhead of $4,500 plus production costs of $50 per unit.
(a) How many units must the manufacturer sell to break even?
(b) What is the manufacturers profit or loss if 200 units are sold?
(c) How many units must the manufacturer sell to realize a profit of $900?
24. Suppose it is known that the supply and demand for a certain commodity are functions of the form S(p)  p2  Ap  3 and D( p)  Cp  32, where p is the price
per unit and A and C are constants. It is also known that no units will be supplied
until the price is at least $3 and that when the price exceeds $8 per unit, no items
will be demanded. How many units are supplied and demanded at equilibrium?
What is the excess of supply over demand when the price is $6?
25. An author must decide between two publishers who are vying for the rights to her
new book. Publisher A offers royalties of 12% of net proceeds on the first 30,000
copies sold and 17% on all copies in excess of that figure and expects to net $5
on each copy sold. Publisher B will pay no royalties on the first 4,000 copies sold
but will pay 15% on the net proceeds of all copies sold in excess of 4,000 and
expects to net $6 on each copy sold. Which publisher offers the better deal?
26. Some psychologists believe that when a person is asked to recall a set of facts,
the rate at which the facts are recalled is proportional to the number of relevant
facts in the subjects memory that have not yet been recalled. Express the recall
rate as a function of the number of facts that have been recalled.

Chapter 1 Review

P x
900

3,000

PROBLEM 27

Chapter Summary and Review Problems

89

27. A cable is to be run from a power plant on one side of a river 900 meters wide
to a factory on the other side, 3,000 meters downstream. The cable will be run in
a straight line from the power plant to some point P on the opposite bank and
then along the bank to the factory. The cost of running the cable across the water
is $5 per meter, while the cost over land is $4 per meter. Let x be the distance
from P to the point directly across the river from the power plant and express the
cost of installing the cable as a function of x.
28. A manufacturer is capable of producing 5,000 units per day. There is a fixed (overhead) cost of $1,500 per day and a variable cost of $2 per unit produced. Express
the cost C as a function of the number of units produced, and sketch the graph of
C(x). Is C(x) continuous? If not, where do its discontinuities occur?
29. How many minutes after 3 P.M. will the minute hand coincide with the hour hand?
1
[Hint: The hour hand moves
as fast as the minute hand.]
12
30. It has been observed that the number of chirps made by a cricket each minute
depends on the temperature. Crickets wont chirp if the temperature is 38F or
less, and observations yield the following data:
Number of chirps (C)
Temperature T (F)

10

20

60

38

39

40

42

50

(a) Express T as a linear function of C.

(b) How many chirps would you expect to hear if the temperature is 75F? If you
hear 37 chirps in a 30-second period of time, what is the approximate temperature?
31. Evaluate each of the following limits:
x2  3x
(a) lim
xfi 2 x  1
(c) lim

xfi 1

1
1

x2 x

32. Graph the function y 

x2  x  2
xfi 1
x2  1

(b) lim

x3  8
xfi 2 2  x

(d) lim

1
. Then, without further computation, graph the
x

1
function y  3  .
x
33. In each of the following cases, list all values of x for which the given function is
not continuous.

90

Chapter 1

Functions, Graphs, and Limits

(a) f(x)  5x3  3x  x

(c) g(x) 

(d)

(b) f(x) 

x2  1
x3

x3  5x
(x  2)(2x  3)

x3  2x  33 if x  3
h(x)  x2  6x  9
if x 3
x3

34. In each of the following cases, find the value of the constant A that makes the
given function f(x) continuous for all x.
2x  3 if x  1
(a) f(x) 
Ax  1 if x  1
x2  1
if x  1
(b) f(x)  x  1
Ax2  x  3 if x  1

35. The population (in thousands) of a colony of bacteria t minutes after the introduction of a toxin is given by the function
f(t) 

t2  7
8t  72

if t  5
if t  5

(a) When does the colony die out?

(b) Explain why the population must be 10,000 sometime between t  1 and
t  7.
36. The radius of the earth is roughly 4,000 miles, and an object located x miles from
the center of the earth weighs w(x) lb, where

Ax
w(x)  B
x2

if x  4,000
if x 4,000

and A and B are positive constants. Assuming that w(x) is continuous for all x,
what must be true about A and B? Sketch the graph of w(x).
37. Graph f(x) 
undefined.

3x2  6x  9
. Determine the values of x where the function is
x2  x  2

Chapter 1 Review

Chapter Summary and Review Problems

91

654
21
84
54
and y 
on the same set of coordinate axes using
x
x
9
35
279
10
[10, 10]1 by [10, 10]1. Are the two lines parallel?

38. Graph y 

39. For f(x)  x  3 and g(x)  5x2  4, find (a) f(g(1.28)) and (b) g( f(2)). Use
three decimal place accuracy.
40. Graph y 

x2  1
2
1

x

if x  1
. Find the points of discontinuity.
if x 1

x2  3x  10
 2. Find the x and y intercepts. For
1x
what values of x is this function defined?

41. Graph the function f(x)