Sample Final Exam

MATH 147 Section 1, Fall 2023

University of Waterloo

Note: The real exam will be formatted like the midterm and include spaces for your an-
swers.
Instructions that will appear in the real final exam (roughly)
1. Do not write on the Crowdmark QR code at the top of each page.
2. Use a dark pencil or pen for your work.
3. Answer the questions in the spaces provided. If you require additional space to answer a
question, please use the two spare pages before the final (bubble) page and clearly refer
to the appropriate page in your solutions.
4. Answer the True or False section on the bubble page, the last page of the answer booklet.
Fill in bubble A for ‘true’ and bubble B for ‘false’.
5. Your grade will be influenced by how clearly you express your ideas, and how well you
organize your solutions.
6. Marks for each section or question are indicated in square brackets in the left margin.
7. The final section of this exam is named “Midterm topics.” If you wrote the midterm test,
then this section is optional and will not affect your final exam grade. If you did not write
the midterm test, then this section will count towards your final exam grade.
8. The maximum number of points is 58 (+3 bonus) excluding the midterm section and 20
for the midterm section.

1 Definitions and theorems

[6] (a) Give a definition for each of the following.
(i) The limit of the function f at x0 is L ∈ R.
(ii) A function f has a local minimum at c.
(iii) A function f is convex on an interval I.
[2] (b) State the Local Extrema Theorem (Fermat’s Theorem).

2 True or False
[8] Determine whether the following statements are true or false.
You may assume that {an } is a sequence and f : R → R is a function.

1
 1. If lim f (x) = L ∈ R, and an = f (n) for all n ∈ N, then lim an = L.
x→+∞ n→∞

x
2. lim 3 = ∞.
x→1 x −1

3. If f is monotone increasing on the interval [0, 1], then f (1) ≥ 0.

4. By the Extreme Value Theorem, every function that is continuous on [0, 1] has a global
minimum on [0, 1].

5. If f is continuous on [a, b], then f is differentiable on (a, b).

6. If an invertible function f is differentiable, then its inverse is continuous.

7. The main purpose of Newton’s Method is to calculate the derivative of a function.

8. If f is infinitely differentiable at a point a, then its Taylor series centered at a converges

to f (x) on a nonempty set of x values.

3 Brief justification
[6] Determine whether the following are true or false. Provide a brief explanation/proof or coun-
terexample for each answer.
(a) A function f : [0, 1] → R is continuous on [0, 1] if and only if there exist points a, b ∈ [0, 1]
such that f (a) ≤ f (x) ≤ f (b) for all x ∈ [0, 1].
f (a+h)−f (a−h)
(b) If a function f is differentiable at a point a, then f 0 (a) = lim 2h
.
h→0

(c) If a function is continuous on [0, 1] and there is no point x ∈ (0, 1) satisfying f 0 (x) = 0,
then f (0) 6= f (1).

4 Derivatives
d 3
[3] (a) Show directly from the definition of derivatives that dx
x = 3x2 for all x ∈ R.
dy
[4] (b) Find the value of dx at x = 0, y = 0, assuming that y is a differentiable function of x
satisfying the implicit relationship y = sin(x + 3y).

5 Newton’s Method and Taylor’s Theorem

[9] Consider the function f (x) = x3 + x − 1 for all x ∈ R.
(a) Show that f has a root x∗ and find an interval of the form (m, m + 1), where m ∈ Z, that
contains this root.
(b) Apply Newton’s Method to find the terms x1 and x2 starting from x0 = 0.
(c) Show that x2 > x∗ .

2
 (d) Use the Mean Value Theorem to find an upper bound for |x2 − x∗ |. Your upper bound
should be smaller than min{|x2 − m|, |m + 1 − x2 |}.
(e) Without evaluating f (x1 ), use Taylor’s Theorem or Taylor’s Approximation Theorem to
find an upper bound for |f (x1 )| (using x1 from Part (b)) based on the linear approximation
of f centered at x = 0.

6 Optimization and curve sketching

(
e1/x
x
, x 6= 0,
[9] Consider the function f (x) =
0, x = 0.
(a) Find all critical points of f , classifying the type of each, and find all global extrema of f
on R.
(b) Find all asymptotes and points of inflection of f .
(c) Sketch a graph of f over a suitably large domain. You may use without proof that
lim− f (x) = 0.
x→0

7 Proofs
You may cite and use any theorem or proposition from the course.
[5] (a) Let f be increasing on [a, b] and differentiable on (a, b). Show that f 0 (x) ≥ 0 for all
x ∈ (a, b).
[6] (b) Suppose that the function f is negative and convex on a proper closed bounded interval
1
[a, b], and twice differentiable on (a, b). Show that the function g defined by g(x) = f (x)
for all x ∈ [a, b] is concave.

8 Bonus
[3] Let f : R → R. Suppose that for any a ∈ R and any ε > 0, there exists δ > 0 such that if
x ∈ Q satisfies |x − a| < δ, then |f (x) − f (a)| < ε. Prove that f is continuous.

9 Midterm topics
9.1 Sequences
sinp (1/n) − cos(1/n) + 1
[5] Evaluate lim as a function of the positive real number p. Show your
n→∞ sin(1/n)
working for full marks.

3
 9.2 Limits and continuity of functions
x−3
[4] (a) Find the limit lim and prove it directly from the formal definition.
x→+∞ 3x−1

[5] (b) Show that lim− f (x) = 0 and determine whether f is continuous at x = 0, where
x→0
(
e1/x
x
if x 6= 0,
f (x) =
0, if x = 0.

[6] (c) State and prove the sequential characterization of one-sided limits from the right.