Final Project: The Prompts UMTYMP Calculus III Fall 2023

With your partner, choose one of the two prompts below to work on. Your math draft is due on 11/16 and will
count as your professional problem that week. We highly recommend you get a head start by doing some work on
the draft this week.

Choose one of these problems to complete:

1. Let 8 !
>
< 1
(x2 + y 2 ) cos p + 1, (x, y) 6= (0, 0)
f (x, y) = x2 + y 2 .
>
:
1, (x, y) = (0, 0)
Prove that f (x, y) is di↵erentiable at all points, even though fx (x, y) and fy (x, y) are discontinuous at the
origin. Explain why this function does not contradict Theorem 3.5 in Section 2.3.

2. Let 8 2 3
< 2xy + x , (x, y) 6= (0, 0)
g(x, y) = 2
x +y 2 .
:
0, (x, y) = (0, 0)
Find gx (0, 0) and gy (0, 0). Then determine whether gx (x, y) and gy (x, y) are continuous at the origin, and
whether g(x, y) is di↵erentiable there.

Math Draft Details:

Recall the following from the first project handout:

By 11/16 you’ll submit a draft of your mathematical solution, on the level of a regular graded problem. You should
include enough words or explanation so that I can follow your work and check it for correctness, but you will not
be evaluated on your writing or on any illustrations. This is your chance to have your mathematics checked for
correctness before you put more work into your draft!

All drafts must be typed. You can use Google Docs, LATEX, Microsoft Word, or other tools, but all mathematics
must be entered in an equation editor / math mode. Typing your project will save you work in the long run,
because you won’t need to rewrite your entire solution for your later drafts. It will also make submission easier,
because you can save your work to a PDF instead of taking pictures of a written solution.

You can think of your math draft as a regular graded problem (although it will be worth more points). It should
include a complete mathematical solution to your problem. There should be enough explanations and words to
follow your solution, but you don’t (yet) have to write a “professional problem” level solution with full sentences
and explanations.

Pictures are not required in the math draft, but will be required in later drafts. Even if you do not include pictures
in this draft, you should use CalcPlot3D or another tool to graph the function and its partial derivatives. That
will help you understand the behavior of the function near the origin. (See “Illustrations” below.)

A full solution involves more steps than you might think at first. You’ll have to compute a number of partial
derivatives and limits. In some cases you’ll compute a partial derivative away from the origin. In other cases you’ll
have to compute partials at (0, 0). Think carefully about when you have to use the limit definition or not. Think
carefully about how to check if a function is continuous or discontinuous at (0, 0).
Writeup Details:
Eventually you will have to write full explanations for your work. At that point you’ll want to focus on the following.

• Organization and Structure: You will have more freedom than usual to choose the structure of your
solution. Aim to make it clear and understandable to someone who has not previously read your problem,
but has studied the same material.
• Explanation and justification: Your solution should be appropriately justified. Decide what needs to be
justified (for example, using theorems), and what is unnecessary (such as algebra). You may use a computer
algebra system to assist with awful computations. If you do so, explain this and clearly incorporate the
computations in your solution. You will most likely need to do auxiliary calculations not mentioned in your
problem: Decide which of these are important and must be included in your writeup, and which are merely
helpful when discovering a solution.
• Attention to mathematical details: Your problem deals with an unusual situation involving one of our
major theorems or definitions. Pay careful attention to the hypotheses of any theorem you use and the specific
situation in which you are trying to apply it.
• Methods: Use theorems and definitions appropriately. Do not use a theorem when its hypotheses are not
satisfied, and do not draw a conclusion which is not supported.
• Writing: Especially with two of you working together, we’ll expect high quality writing, not only in terms of
grammar, spelling and structure, but also as far as formatting mathematical expressions and quality of any
diagrams or graphs. This would be a good time to review the UMTYMP Style Guide on Canvas.
• Illustrations: Given the odd behavior of these functions, it would be helpful for the reader to see graphs
which illustrate the mathematical issues. CalcPlot3D can work well, but you should spend time adjusting
the range of x, y, and z values, and perhaps the colors or other features of the graph.

Pro Tips: CalcPlot3D doesn’t let you save images, but you can do the following from the File menu,
accessible by clicking on the three horizontal lines in the upper left corner:
• Copy option on/off (in Chrome): Once enabled, you can right-click the image and save it...
but it only works with Chrome.
• Encode View in URL: Encodes all of your functions and graphical choices in the “address bar”
in your browser. Highlight that bar, select all of the text, and copy it. Then you can paste it into
a Google doc (or other file) as a way of “saving” your work. When you want to tweak your image
for a later draft, you can copy that ridiculously long URL and paste it back into your browser.
Here’s an example o such a URL:

https://c3d.libretexts.org/CalcPlot3D/index.html?type=z;z=sin((x- 1)(y- 2));visible=true;umin=- 1;umax=4;vmin=0;vmax=4;grid=50;format=normal;alpha=- 1;hidemyedges=

true;constcol=rgb(255, 0, 0);view=0;contourcolor=red;fixdomain=false;contourplot=true;showcontourplot=false;firstvalue=- 1;stepsize=0.2;numlevels=11;list=;xnum=46;

ynum=46;show2d=false;hidesurface=false;hidelabels=true;showprojections=false;surfacecontours=true;projectioncolor=rgba(255, 0, 0, 1);showxygrid=false;showxygridonbox=

false;showconstraint=false&type=window;hsrmode=3;nomidpts=true;anaglyph=- 1;center=5.463866655150182, - 2.7399710187992916, 4.496835547386002,1;focus=1, 2, 0, 1;up=- 0.

44969305373818924, 0.40760309844085396, 0.7947552274512183, 1;transparent=false;alpha=140;twoviews=false;unlinkviews=false;axisextension=0.7;xaxislabel=x;yaxislabel=y;

zaxislabel=z;edgeson=true;faceson=true;showbox=true;showaxes=true;showticks=true;perspective=true;centerxpercent=0.5;centerypercent=0.5;rotationsteps=30;autospin=true;

xygrid=false;yzgrid=false;xzgrid=false;gridsonbox=true;gridplanes=false;gridcolor=rgb(128, 128, 128);xmin=- 1;xmax=4;ymin=0;ymax=4;zmin=- 1;zmax=1;xscale=1;yscale=1;zscale=

1;zcmin=- 4;zcmax=4;xscalefactor=1;yscalefactor=1;zscalefactor=1;tracemode=0;keep2d=false;zoom=1.184

Jonathan Rogness <rogness@umn.edu> October 31, 2023