Calculus 1 : Functions

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for Calculus 1

varsity tutors app store varsity tutors android store

Example Questions

Example Question #1 : How To Find Prediction Models

Determine the tangent line to  at  , and use the tangent line to approximate the value at .

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

First recall that

To find the tangent line of  at , we first determine the slope of . To do so, we must find its derivative. 

Recall that derivatives of exponential functions involving  are given as:

, where  is a constant and  is any function of 

In our case, ,. 

At ,

 , where  is the slope of the tangent line.

To use point-slope form, we need to know the value of the original function at 

Therefore,

At 

Example Question #2691 : Functions

Suppose a blood cell increases proportionally to the present amount.  If there were  blood cells to begin with, and  blood cells are present after  hours, what is the growth constant?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The population size  after some time  is given by:

where  is the initial population.

At the start, there were 30 blood cells.

Substitute this value into the given formula.

After 2 hours, 45 blood cells were present.  Write this in mathematical form.

Substitute this into , and solve for .

 

Example Question #1 : Constant Of Proportionality

Given any linear function , determine the direct constant of proportionality

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Direct constant of proportionality for any given function y, between any x values, is given by

, where  is the direction constant of proportionality

In the case of a linear function 

 is the same thing as the slope. 

Therefore, the constant of proportionality is 

Example Question #1 : How To Find Constant Of Proportionality Of Rate

Find the direct constant of proportionality of  from  to

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To determine the direct constant of proportionality, we determine the rate of change from  and  for .

Rate of change is determined by

.

In our case,  between  and , the rate of change is

.

 

Example Question #3721 : Calculus

Find the direct constant of proportionality  of  from  to .

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Direct constant of proportionality  is given by

.

Since  and 

Example Question #1 : Exponential Growth Applications

Suppose a population of bacteria increases from  to  in . What is the constant of growth?

Possible Answers:

None of these

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The equation for population growth is given by .  is the population,  is the intial value,  is time, and  is the growth constant. We can plug in the values we know at time  and solve for  .

Now that we solved for , we can plug in what we know for time  and solve for .

Example Question #1 : How To Find Constant Of Proportionality Of Rate

A population of deer grew from 50 to 200 in 7 years. What is the growth constant for this population?

Possible Answers:

None of these

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The equation for population growth is given by . P is the population,  is the intial value,  is time, and  is the growth constant. We can plug in the values we know at time  and solve for  .

Now that we have solved for  we can solve for  at 

Example Question #22 : Exponential Functions

A population of mice has 200 mice. After 6 weeks, there are 1600 mice in the population. What is the constant of growth?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The equation for population growth is given by .  is the population,  is the intial value,  is time, and  is the growth constant. We can plug in the values we know at time  and solve for .

Now that we have  we can solve for  at .

Example Question #4 : Constant Of Proportionality

Find the direct constant of proportionality  of   from  to 

Possible Answers:

 is undefined 

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Direct constant of proportionality  is given by 

, where  is the change in the  position and  is the change in the  position. 

Since , and we're going from  to 

 

Example Question #1 : How To Find Constant Of Proportionality Of Rate

The rate of decrease of the dwindling wolf population of Zion National Park is proportional to the population. The population decreased by 7 percent between 2009 and 2011. What is the constant of proportionality?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

We're told that the rate of growth of the population is proportional to the population itself, meaning that this problem deals with exponential growth/decay. The population can be modeled thusly:

Where  is an initial population value, and  is the constant of proportionality.

Since the population decreased by 7 percent between 2009 and 2011, we can solve for this constant of proportionality:

Learning Tools by Varsity Tutors