School of Mathematics
MAT9004 Monash University
Applied Class Week 4 A/Prof Heiko Dietrich
Prof Nick Wormald
Question 4.1
How would you apply the methods given in lectures to establish the minimum value of the function
f (x) = 2x3 9x2 + 12x for x in the domain [2/3, 1)? (Hint: break the domain into two parts.)
Question 4.2
Let f (x) = 4 x2 .
a) Find an antiderivative of f .
b) Find the area of the region bounded by (i) the plot of f that lies above the x axis, and (ii) the x axis.
Produce a plot to visualise this region.
Question 4.3
Rain starts falling on an empty swimming pool one hour after midday. At t hours after midday (for any
real t 1), the rate that rain water enters the pool is 128/t2 litres per hour and the water leaks out of the
pool at a rate of 2t litres per hour (until the pool is empty again).
a) Find the time when the maximum amount of water is in the pool.
b) Find an expression for the amount of water in the pool t hours after midday, that is valid for any
t 1 until the pool is again empty.
c) Find the amount of water in the pool, when it is at its maximum.
d) Show that the pool is not yet empty by 10pm on the same day.
Question 4.4
Let f (x) = x3 3x2 + 2x, and g(x) = x2 2x.
a) Find the area of the bounded region A between the two plots of f and g. (Hint: first find where the
plots meet.)
b) Find the area of the bounded region B between the two plots of f + 100 and g + 100 directly.
c) What is the relation between the answers to (a) and (b)? Why should we have expected this? What
is an easy way to approach such a problem as (a) that does not involve looking where the functions
cross the x axis?
d) If you did not already do so, write the answer to (a) or to (b) as one single integral involving f and g.
Problems for revision at home (Week 4)
Question 4.5
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Let c be a constant and let f (x) = c x.
a) Find the area between the graph of f and the x axis, for 0 x c2 .
b) Explain why f has an inverse function (for a suitable codomain), assuming the domain of f is [0, c2 ]
and find the inverse function of f .
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c) Let g = f 1 . Find 0 g(x) dx.
d) Explain why you could tell the answers to (a) and (c) are equal without doing any antidifferentiation
calculations.
Question 4.6
A sphere of radius x has surface area 4⇡x2 and volume 43 ⇡x3 . (Notice that here area is the derivative of
volume. Neat eh? There’s a reason for it!) A cube of side q has surface area 6q 2 and volume q 3 . You
want to make a sphere and cube from solid gold with total surface area 4 cm2 . It’s expensive! How big
should the sphere be, to minimise the total volume?
