Rapid Recall

  • Find the critical points of the function $f(x,y)=x^2+4xy+y^2-3x$.

Solution

There is only one critical point. It is $(-1/2, 1)$. Just find where the first derivative is equal to zero (the zero matrix). .

  • For the function $f(x,y)=x^2+4xy+y^2-3x$, compute the second derivative.

Solution

The solution is $$D^2f(x,y) = \begin{bmatrix}\begin{matrix}2\\4\end{matrix}&\begin{matrix}4\\2\end{matrix}\end{bmatrix}.$$

  • For the function $f(x,y)=x^2+4xy+y^2-3x$, determine the location of any maxes, mins, or saddles, and classify each location appropriately using eigenvalues.

Solution

The only critical point is $(-1/2,1)$. The eigenvalues of $D^2f(-1/2,1)$ are $-2$ and $6$. Because these differ in sign, the point $(-1/2,1)$ is the location of a saddle point.

Group problems

  1. A rover travels along the line $2x+3y=6$. The surrounding terrain has elevation $z=x^2+4y$. The rover reaches a local minimum along this path.
    • State the function $f$ to optimize, and the constraint $g=c$.
    • Compute $\vec \nabla f$ and $\vec \nabla g$.
    • Write the system of equations that results from $\vec \nabla f=\lambda\vec \nabla g$ together with $g(x,y) = 6$.
    • Solve the system above (you should get $x=4/3$ and $y=10/9$).
  2. Consider the function $f(x,y)= 2x^2+3xy+4y^2-5x+2y$.
    • Find all critical points of $f$.
    • Determine the eigenvalues of the second derivative at each critical point. Do we have a max, min, or saddle?
  3. Consider the function $f(x,y,z) = 3xy+z^2$. We'll be analyzing the surface at the point $P=(1,-3,2)$.
    • If $dx=0.1$, $dy=0.2$ and $dz=0.3$, then what is $df$ at $P$.
    • Give an equation of the tangent plane to the level surface of $f$ that passes through $(1,2,-3)$.
    • Give an equation of the tangent plane to the level surface of $f$ that passes through $(a,b,c)$.
  4. Give an equation of the tangent plane to $xy+z^2=7$ at the point $P=(-3,-2,1)$.
  5. Give an equation of the tangent plane to $z=f(x,y)=xy^2$ at the point $P=(4,-1,f(4,-1))$.
    • Find the directional derivative of $f(x,y)=xy^2$ at $P=(4,-1)$ in the direction $(-3,4)$.

Problem Set
Today

« March 2019 »

Sun

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31