MATH 1230 Homework 10, partial solutions

1. Find the dimensions of the rectangle of area A that has the smallest perimeter. (Your
answer should be expressed in terms of A.)

Let x and y be the dimensions of a rectangle with area A. Then we wish

to find the minimum value of the function P = 2(x + y) subject to the
constraint xy = A. Then P = 2x + 2A/x, and a reasonable domain for P
is (0, 1). p
P 0 = 2 2A/x2p> 0 whenever x2 > A or x > A.pSimilarly, P 0 < 0
whenever x <p A. Therefore, P decreases on (0, A) and increases
p ( A, 1). Therefore P has a local minimum at the critical
thereafter on
point x = A, which must also be its absolute minimum.p pHence the
dimensions of the perimeter minimizing rectangle are A by A.

2. The base of a triangle is on the x-axis, one side lies along the line y = 3x, and the
third side passes through the point (1, 1). What is the slope of the third side if the
area of the triangle is to be a minimum?

Suppose the third side lies on a line of slope m. We will assume here
that the triangle lies in the first quadrant. (Otherwise, there is no
minimumthink of m ! 1.) Then, the possible values for m are m > 3
and m < 0, as well as m infinite/undefined, corresponding to the triangle
with vertical third side (of base 1 and height 3 and hence area 1/6).
Then the equation of such a line (passing through (1, 1)) is y = mx m+1.
The base of the triangle is the x-intercept of this line, 1 1/m. The height
of the triangle is determined by the intersection of this line with the line
y = 3x. Set 3x = mx m + 1, and solve for x: x = (m 1)/(m 3).
Therefore, the height is 3(m 1)/(m 3). Hence the area is

1 3(m 1)2
A=
2 m(m 3)

if m is not infinite. If A has a minimum, it occurs at a critical/singular

point. Find A0 :
3(m 1)(m + 3)
A0 =
2m2 (m 3)2
hence the only critical point is m = 3, which can be easily checked to
be a local min. Hence m = 3 yields the minimum among values m < 0,
2
which is A = 2(3(3)(4) 6) = 43 . We need to see how this compares to values of
A for which m > 3. Looking at A0 , we see that A decreases on m > 3, so
3 4
we should check lim A(x) = > . Therefore, the minimal area among
m!1 2 3
these triangles in the first quadrant is 4/3.

University of Manitoba D. Krepski

Department of Mathematics Fall 2015
MATH 1230 Homework 10, partial solutions

3. Find the point(s) on the parabola x = y 2 closest to the point (0, 3).

4. What is the largest possible area of a parallelogram inscribed inside a triangle of area
A? (You may not assume anything special about the triangle. Your answer should be
expressed in terms of A.)

Let the base and height of the triangle be B and H, so that A = BH/2.
Let x and y be the dimensions (base/height) of the parallelogram. We
wish to find maximum of function a = xy; so we need to relate x and y.
By similar triangles,
y H
= ,
B x B
so that a(x) = H
B
x(B x), 0 x B. Check that the maximum occurs
at x = B/2, so that the maximum value of a is A/2.

5. Find the indicated Taylor polynomial for each function below.

(a) f (x) = ex , Taylor polynomial of order 4 about x = 1;

Since all derivatives of ex are the same, and their values at 1 are e, we
have:
e2 e3 34
P4 (x) = e + e(x 1) + (x 1)2 + (x 1)3 + (x 1)4 .
2 3! 4!

(b) f (x) = cos x, Taylor polynomial of order 4 about x = /2;

(c) f (x) = x3 + 3x2 7x + 2, Taylor polynomial of order 3 about x = 1;

f 00 (1) f 000 (1)

P3 (x) = f (1) + f 0 (1)(x 1) + 2!
(x 1)2 + 3!
(x 1)3 We compute:

f 0 (x) = 3x2 + 6x 7 f 0 (1) = 2

f 00 (x) = 6x + 6 f 00 (1) = 12
f 000 (x) = 6 f 000 (1) = 6

Hence,
P3 (x) = 13 + 2(x 1) + 6(x 1)2 + (x 1)3

(d) f (x) = x1/5 , Taylor polynomial of order 5 about x = 0

6. Read Example 5 on p. 277 of the textbook that provides an approximation for the
number e using the 7-th order Taylor polynomial of y = ex about x = 0. Suppose
that instead one used the 4-th order Taylor polynomial to approximate e. How many
decimal places can we be sure are correct?

University of Manitoba D. Krepski

Department of Mathematics Fall 2015
MATH 1230 Homework 10, partial solutions

s
If we use P4 , then the error term will be E4 (x) = e5! x5 for some s between 0
and 1. For x = 1, this can be no larger than 5!e < 5!3 = 1/40 = 0.025 < 0.05
) the estimate is correct to within 1 decimal.

7. To how many decimal places can you be sure that the approximation sin(0.01) 0.01
is correct? (Hint: one way to think of this approximation is as the result of using the
2nd order Taylor polynomial P2 (x) = P1 (x) for sin x about x = 0.)

Using P2 (x) = x, the 2nd order Taylor polynomial for sin, we estimate
the error as E2 (x). Since (sin x)000 = cos x, we have that E2 (x) = cos
3!
s 3
x
where s is some number between 0 and x. Forx = 0.01 = 1/100, we see
that E2 (1) 3!1 100
1 1 5
3 = 6106 < 107 . Hence, the approximation is accurate

to within 6 decimal places!

University of Manitoba D. Krepski

Department of Mathematics Fall 2015