EPMATH153 Extension Mathematics 1

also rst half of

EPMATH309 Extension Mathematics

by Scott Scier

Contents
Topic 1 Number Systems Lecture 1 Natural numbers and integers Lecture 2 Rational numbers, Pythagoras Theorem and surds Lecture 3 Real and complex numbers Topic 2 Algebra Lecture 4 Basic algebra Lecture 5 More algebra Lecture 6 Solving equations Lecture 7 Quadratic equations Lecture 8 Inequalities Lecture 9 Sequences and series Topic 3 Graphing Lecture 10 Functions and graphs Lecture 11 Graphing straight lines and parabolas Lecture 12 Graphing higher order polynomials, circles, ellipses,hyperbolae Lecture 13 Curve sketching Exam 2001 Solutions to exercises 63 71 77 85 92 96 24 30 36 42 49 59 3 8 16

Lecture 1.
1.1

Natural numbers and integers

The Natural numbers

The numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, ..... are called the natural numbers. You may also have seen them called the counting numbers, the whole numbers or even the cardinal numbers. The abbreviated notation for the natural numbers is a boldface, capital N N but because mathematics was, and still is, mainly taught with blackboard and chalk, and because it is very dicult to write in boldface with chalk, a special symbol was invented: There is some controversy about whether or not zero should be included in the natural numbers. It is not really worth arguing about simply be aware that sometimes when we talk of the natural numbers we intend zero to be included and sometimes we intend it to be excluded. Hopefully it will be clear which applies from the context! Notice that the natural numbers do not stop. The line of dots at the end indicates they continue forever; there is no largest natural number, for if there was you could simply add one to it and get an even bigger number. Secondly we can perform the usual arithmetic operations on these numbers addition, multiplication, subtraction and division. Notice that if we add two natural numbers, or multiply them, the result is another natural number. Anywhere in mathematics we come across this sort of behaviour we call it a closure property. We say that the natural numbers are closed under addition and multiplication, since using these operations we cannot escape from the natural numbers. Subtraction and division are a dierent matter, however. Subtracting two natural numbers may or may not result in a natural number, depending on which is bigger. Thus 7 5 = 2 gives a natural number but 5 7 = 2 does not. Likewise division of natural numbers will usually result in fractions, so the natural numbers are not closed under subtraction and division. This is strong evidence that we will need to nd a bigger system of numbers to work with. Before looking for other number systems, however, lets look at a few important properties of the natural numbers. Prime Numbers A natural number f is a factor of the natural number n if we can nd a natural number g so that f g = n. (Alternatively, if n f is some natural number g . We would say f divides n.) 3

So f = 7 is a factor of n = 28, since we can nd g = 4, and 7 4 = 28. (Alternatively, 28 7 = 4 which is a natural number.) Notice that this means that 1 is a factor of every natural number, and every natural number is a factor of itself, since 1 n = n always works. Most numbers will have lots of factors besides these, but a few numbers have only these trivial factors, and they are a very special class of numbers, the prime numbers. A natural number p, p = 1, is called a prime number if its only factors are 1 and p (that is, itself). Notice that 1 is specically ruled out as a prime even though it does satisfy the condition that its only factors are 1 and itself. There is a very good reason why we dont want to count 1 as a prime number. The Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic or Unique Factorisation Theorem says that every natural number can be written as a product of its prime factors in only one way. This property explains the importance of the prime numbers they are in a sense the fundamental building blocks out of which we create the other natural numbers. For example 12 = 2 2 3 is the only way to write 12 as a product of primes. However if we allowed 1 as a prime number we could write 12 = 1 2 2 3 or 12 = 1 1 2 2 3 and so on. Finding the prime factorisation of a number is relatively easy for small numbers (even up into the thousands). Finding the prime factorisation of big numbers (and I mean BIG) is extremely dicult, and (believe it or not) extremely useful. Most modern codes and cyphers are based on the properties of prime numbers, and the fact that factorising very big numbers is so time consuming as to be essentially impossible. Anyway, for small numbers, it is simply a case of continually splitting the number down into factors, and splitting the factors, etc until you can go no further. Thus 780 = 2 390 = 2 3 130 = 22 3 65 = 22 3 5 13. The rst prime number is 2, and it is the only even prime number since every other even number will have a non-trivial factor of 2; 4 = 2 2, 6 = 2 3, etc. In a similar way, although 3 is prime, all of its multiples; 6,9,12,15,18,..., are not prime. The list of prime numbers begins 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, ..... Once again the line of dots at the end is to indicate that the prime numbers go on forever. This is not so obvious as it was for the natural numbers, and will require a little proof. It is not essential that you know the proof of any theorems in this course, although it may help you to remember and understand the result. 4

Theorem

There are innitely many prime numbers.

Proof Well suppose there werent. Then it would be possible to take all the prime numbers, multiply them together and add 1, and call the result m, say. The Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic says that m can be expressed (in a unique way) as a product of its prime factors, but what can these prime factors possibly be? All the primes we started with are not factors of m since they leave a remainder of 1 when we divide m. Therefore m must have some other prime factors, but this contradicts our the assumption that we had included all prime numbers. Therefore the original assumption must be wrong, and there must be innitely many primes.

There, youve seen your rst proof. I hope it wasnt too painful. In any case dont worry if you cant understand the proof of the theorem, the important thing is to remember what it was we proved. You can use the result of a theorem even if you do not understand its proof, although you are more likely to misuse a theorem which you dont understand. Thats why it is nice if you can follow proofs, but not essential for getting by. LCM and GCD The lowest common multiple (LCM) of two numbers is the smallest number which is divisible by both. For example, the LCM of 6 and 4 is 12, and the LCM of 8 and 2 is 8. The LCM may be more familiar to you as the number you choose for the common denominator when adding or subtracting fractions. 1 1 2 3 5 + = + = 6 4 12 12 12 Finding the LCM of two numbers is easy when you know their prime factorisations. For each prime number, nd the maximum number of times it appears in either of the two numbers, and it must appear that many times in the LCM. For example 24 = 23 3 and 36 = 22 32 . That is, the prime 2 divides 24 three times, and divides 36 twice, so it must divide the LCM three times. The prime 3 divides 24 once and 36 twice, so it divides the LCM twice. Therefore the LCM of 24 and 36 is 23 32 = 72. The greatest common divisor (GCD) of two numbers is the largest number which is a factor of both numbers. Thus the GCD of 6 and 4 is 2 and the GCD of 8 and 2 is also 2. Finding the GCD of two numbers is easy when you know their prime factorisations. For each prime number, nd the minimum number of times it appears in either of the two numbers, and it must appear that many times in the GCD. Again using 24 = 23 .3 and 5

36 = 22 .32 we nd that the GCD should be 22 .3 = 12. Once again you may have seen this notion in fraction work. The GCD is the number by which to divide numerator and denominator to reduce a fraction to its lowest form. 24/12 2 24 = = 36 36/12 3 Two numbers with GCD equal to 1 have no factors in common (except 1 of course) and are termed relatively prime or coprime. Exercises 1.1 1 2 3 4 Find all prime numbers less than 100. Decompose the following numbers into their prime factors. (a) 144 (b) 196 (c) 200 (d) 275 Find the LCM and GCD of each pair of numbers from exercise 2 above. What is the smallest common denominator you could choose to do 1 1 + ? 144 196 1.2 Integers

The positive rational numbers (fractions) are usually taught before the integers since fractions occur quite natuarlly at an early age. However, mathematically it is neater to introduce the integers rst, so thats what well do. The integers are the numbers ....., 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, ....... That is, the natural numbers (with zero thrown in) and all the negatives of the natural numbers. The usual abbreviation for the integers is Z (from a German word I believe), which on a blackboard is written: The integers can be represented on a number line.

The best way to interpret the minus sign is as a change of direction on the number line. For a moment consider only the natural numbers on the number line, and throw in zero as well. Addition of a number can be thought of as travelling to the right, and 6

subtraction as travelling to the left. Now 2 3 is not a natural number, but it is one step left of zero, and so the notation -1 seems appropriate. In this way we extend the natural numbers to the integers. Each integer has a size (the distance from 0) and a direction (positive or negative, right or left from 0). In order to extend arithmetic from the natural numbers to the integers we need to know how to combine the direction parts of the numbers. Each time two negatives are together, it indicates a double change of direction on the number line, but that means we are back to the positive direction. Two negatives really do make a positive! Thus (5) (3) = (5) + 3 = 2 (5) (3) = 15 = 15 It is very important that you are comfortable and condent with adding and multiplying negative numbers together. This is the single biggest cause of silly mistakes in mathematics. It is all too easy to miss a negative sign in a calculation, so it is as well to work slowly and deliberately when lots of negatives get together in the one place! One thing we have achieved by extending the natural numbers to the integers is to close the system under subtraction. If you take any two integers and subtract them the result is again an integer. However we still have a problem with division, since 2 3 still does not have an answer among the integers. We therefore need to invent fractions. Exercises 1.2 (a) 5 7 = (c) 5 7 = (e) 3 7 5 = (g) 3 5 7 = (b) 5 7 = (d) 5 7 = (f) 3 + 7 = (h) 3 5 7 =

Lecture 2
2.1

Rational numbers, Pythagoras Theorem and surds

Rational numbers

The need for rational numbers arises quite naturally at a very earlier age. As the father of twins it is especially important to be able to divide one piece of cake into two (very equal!) halves. From a mathematical point of view we need to invent the rationals to get around the problem that the natural numbers and integers arent closed under division. A rational number is any number which can be written as the ratio of integers (a fraction). Thus r is rational if we can nd two integers p and q such that r= p . q

The rational numbers are abbreviated Q (and I have no idea why Q was chosen, unless it has comes from quotient) which has the blackboard form: Notice that I make a subtle distinction between the words rational and fraction. To me fraction refers to the form of the number; it is written as the ratio of integers; whereas rational is a property of the number; it can be written as the ratio of integers. Thus to me 0.5 is rational because it can be written as 1/2, but 0.5 is not itself a fraction. I freely admit that this is a pedantic point of view and most people, even many mathematicians, would not make this distinction. At this point we will pause for a while and remind ourselves of the rules of arithmetic involving fractions. An inability to manipulated fractions condently is a major problem among students, particularly when algebra is introduced. Personally I believe the little black box, the calculator, is in large part to blame. Certainly pre-calculator students seem to have better arithmetic skills. It is imperative that you can manipulate fractions well, especially when we come to algebra. Equality

c a = b d

if and only if ad = bc.

Thus 3/9 = 4/12 since 3 12 = 9 4. However, you will probably prefer to show two fractions are equal by reducing them to their lowest form, that is by dividing numerator (top) and denominator (bottom) by their GCD. Doing this, 3/9 and 4/12 both reduce to 1/3. Multiplication

c ac a = . b d bd 8

Thus

2 1 2 1 = = . 3 4 12 6

Division

a c a d ad = = . b d b c bc This is often referred to as invert and multiply. Thus 2 4 8 2 1 = = . 3 4 3 1 3

Addition and subtraction

a c ad bc ad bc = = . b d bd bd bd This process is called nding a common denomimator for the fractions. Thus 7 180 168 348 29 5 + = + = = . 24 36 864 864 864 72

Notice how cumbersome this calculation was because we did not use the smallest common denominator. As mentioned above, the smallest common denominator is the LCM of 24 and 36, which is 72. We could therefore have done the calculation as 7 15 14 29 5 + = + = . 24 36 72 72 72 Again I cannot overemphasise the importance of manipulating fractions well. This needs to be second nature to you so that you can concentrate on the problem you are solving rather than the mechanics of arithmetic. A few other points on handling fractions: A fraction is called improper if its numerator (top) is bigger than its denominator (bottom). Such a fraction may be broken down into an integer part plus a proper fraction. This is called a mixed fraction. For example 3 8 =1 . 5 5 I recall from my school days that this was encouraged, even enforced, and improper fractions were considered wrong. This convention is misguided. There is nothing wrong with using improper fractions, in fact they have some denite advantages over mixed fractions, so either form is acceptable. Another convention enforced at school is that all fractions must be reduced to their lowest form by cancelling factors in the numerator and denominator (dividing by the GCD if you like). This convention is by and large enforced. Thus although 2/4 is the same 9

number as 1/2 the former answer is frowned upon since it is not user friendly. Since the number has a simpler form you should use it. Finally we should discuss division by zero. Recall when we do 6 2 we ask ourselves how many 2s make 6? and so we get the answer 3. Now if we do 6 0 we ask how many 0s make 6? and we get the answer that no matter how many 0s we have we cant possibly get 6, thus 6 0 has no answer. If we ever arrive at 6 0 in a calculation we say it is undened. The same is true of virtually any other number divided by zero, but what about 0 0? How many 0s make 0? Any number would do, so again we cant give an answer, and so division by zero is always undened. We still have a bit to talk about with rational numbers their decimal form, for example but lets pause to see what we have achieved. We have produced a number system in which addition, subtraction, multiplication and division (except by 0) are all possible, and what is more the system is closed under all these operations, so it would appear that we do not have to seek any larger class of numbers. Such a system is so nice that mathematicians give it a name, it is called a eld of numbers. Throughout primary school and junior high school these are all the numbers we need; and throughout our daily lives these are the only numbers we commonly use. Exercises 2.1 1 2 3 Reduce the following fractions to their lowest form. (a) 3/15 (a) 1 2 3 (b) 12/108 (b) 2 4 7 (c) 15/85 (d) 3 12 17 (d) 36/84 (e) 144/192 Write the following mixed fractions as improper fractions.
3 (c) 5 11

Write the following improper fractions as mixed fractions. 7 24 43 112 (a) (b) (c) (d) 3 7 11 17 4 Add, subtract, multiply and divide each of the following pairs of fractions. 1 1 2 3 25 5 (a) and (b) and (c) and 2 3 5 7 12 9 2.2 Pythagoras Theorem and 2 Pythagoras Theorem is the most famous theorem in all mathematics, and quite important. I introduce it here to demonstrate the limitations of the rational numbers. The hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle is the side opposite the right-angle: the longest side. Pythagoras Theorem The square of the length of the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle equals the sum of the squares of the lengths of the other two sides. 10

Proof

Consider the following diagrams.

The two big squares with sides of length a + b have identical areas. The four shaded triangles in each diagram are identical, so the remaining white areas must be identical. In the left diagram this is made up of two squares, with areas a2 and b2 . In the right diagram this is one square with area h2 , where h is the hypotenuse of the right-angled triangle. Since these areas are equal, a2 + b2 = h2 . Pythagoras theorem was known long before his time, in Babylon, Egypt, and ancient China; however he is said to have been the rst to prove it, although we do not know how he did it. Pythagoras Theorem is one of the very few pieces of geometry we will do in this course, but it was worth doing for many reasons. Firstly it is so famous that you might feel cheated if you didnt see it, like going to a Don Maclean concert and not hearing American Pie. Secondly it is so remarkably useful just wait until we do trigonometry. But nally, the reason I want it here, is that we can use it to show that 2 must exist. Imagine a right-angled triangle with sides of length 1 coming from the right-angle, and ask yourself what is the length of the hypotenuse? Since we arent sure, call that length h, and apply the theorem.

12 + 12 = h2 11

So h must be a number whose square is 2. Try as they might, the Greeks could not nd a rational number to do this. Theorem Proof There is no rational number h whose square equals 2.

Suppose that there is such a rational number h. Since it is rational we could p q

write it as the ratio of whole numbers, h= So now if h2 = 2 we get p2 =2 q2 and multiplying both sides by q 2 gives p 2 = 2q 2 . Now squaring a number doubles up all its prime factors, so any prime number divides a square an even number of times (maybe zero). We dont know how many times 2 divides p2 , but it must be an even number of times. Similarly 2 divides q 2 an even number of times, so it divides 2q 2 once more than that, that is an odd number of times. But if p2 = 2q 2 they must have the same prime factorisation by the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic, so we have a contradiction; an even number cant equal an odd number. We conclude that our original assumption must be wrong, and therefore h cannot be a rational number. where q = 0.

Dont worry if you cant follow the details of the proof. The important fact is, there must be a number whose square is 2, since we can draw a triangle the length of whose hypotenuse has this property and the theorem says that that length cannot be a rational number. So our search for the ideal number system must go on. Of course there are many more numbers which are important and which arent rational. You have probably already met and later in the year we shall come across another important number which is called e. In fact most numbers arent rational, but they are seldom used. Exercises 2.2 1 Find the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle if the other two sides are (a) 3 and 4 (b) 5 and 12 (c) 9 and 40. 12

2 3

Find the length of the side of a triangle if the hypotenuse and its other side are (a) 13 and 12 (b) 41 and 9 (c) 20 and 4. A swimming pool is 50 metres long and 15 metres wide. How far, to the nearest metre, must you swim to go diagonally across the pool?

2.3 Surds We have just seen that 2 is not a rational number. In a similar way we could show that 3, 5 and so on are also irrational. (Of course 4, 9 and so on are rational.) We could also take cube roots, or even higher roots of numbers, and combine these in any fashion using addition, multiplication and so on. Thus we can produce a number like 2+ 3 3.

Numbers produced in this fashion are called surds. Many of the irrational numbers we use are of this form, however it is a mistake to believe that all irrational numbers are surds. In fact most are not, for example is not a surd. Once again condence in manipulating surds is important as it allows you to concentrate on the real issues in a problem rather than the supercial task of calculating. We will concentrate on squareroots, though similar rules apply for cuberoots etc. Multiplication of surds a b = a b. For example Lowest form Often surds can be simplied by factoring perfect squares out of the squareroot. Thus 72 = 36 2 = 6 2. 2 5= 10.

In general the answer 6 2 is preferable to 72 because it is in a more compact, user friendly form. There may be occasions, however, when you need to go in the reverse direction, moving the 6 back under the squareroot as 36. Similar rules apply to cuberoots and so on.

13

Addition and subtraction of surds. In general it is only possible to simplify addition or subtraction of surds which have the same number under the squareroot. Thus 2 + 3 cannot be simplied any further. But 2 + 8 = 2 + 4 2 = 2 + 2 2 = 3 2. Here, although the two surds appeared to have dierent squareroot parts, by factoring out the perfect square 4, we see they share the same squareroot part, 2, and so we can combine them. Division of surds - rationalising the denominator Much the same as for improper fractions, the High School system has decreed that surds in the denominator of a quotient are unsightly, and should be removed. In fact there is little to choose between 1/ 2 and 2/2, and I believe the former is perhaps the nicer form. Nonetheless there certainly are occasions when it is useful to remove a surd from the denominator of a quotient, so we should know how to do it. In fact, it is a good chance to trot out a much used mathematical trick doing absolutely nothing in a clever way! Yes, the trick of doing nothing is much favoured by all mathematicians I know. One common form it takes is to add zero (in disguise) to a number. This does not change the number one iota, but it can simplify things if the disguise is wisely chosen. The form we use here is to multiply the number by 1 (in disguise), which of course doesnt change the number, but can remove a surd from the denominator if we chose the correct disguise. Given a surd a + b c we call the number a b c its conjugate surd. To remove a + b c from a denominator we multiply by 1, disguised as the conjugate surd over itself. Thus, for example, 1 1 2 3 2 3 = = = 2 3. 2+ 3 2+ 3 2 3 42 3+2 33 Exercises 2.3 Write the following surds in their lowest form. (a) 27 (b) 32 (c) 75 (d) 108 (e) 125 (f) 192 (g) 3 16 (h) 3 192 2 Write the following surds in the form n x. (a) 2 3 (b) 5 2 (c) 3 7 (d) 3 3 3 14 1

Simplify. (a) 4 3 2 3 + 5 3 (b) 8 + 32 (c) 75 48 (d) 27 108 12 (e) 128 98 + 72 (f) 4 48 5 27 (g) x3 + x 4x Simplify. (a) 3 3 (b) 3 3 5 3 (c) 4 5 2 2 (d) 2( 8 2) (e) (3 2)2 (f) 2 3(4 2 5 3) (g) 3 3( 8 + 2 2) (h) ( 7 2 3)( 5 3 2) Multiply each of the follwowing by its conjugate surd. (a) 3 + 2 (b) 7 3 (c) 4 3 5 (d) 2 7 + 1 Rationalise 3 (a) (b) 2 3 (e) 31 the of the following surds. denominator 3 5 2 1 (c) (d) 6 3 2+1 5 3 2 3+2 5 (f) (g) (h) 5+ 7 3+ 2 2 51

5 6

15

Lecture 3
3.1

Real and complex numbers

Real numbers decimal representation

We return to building up our ideal number system, having progressed from natural numbers to integers then rationals. Through Pythagoras Theorem we saw that 2 must exist, since it is the length of the side of a triangle, and we believe in the concept of length. However from the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic we saw that 2 could not be rational. This number, and others like it, are called surds and we have learnt a little about calculating with surds but still it is not enough. There are other numbers, the most notable being , which do not fall into any of these categories. These, together with all the rest, are the real numbers. In many ways they are very intuitive, and yet to describe them fully is beyond the scope of this course. Paradoxically, however, they are the numbers which we shall use more than any others. To understand them better, we will investigate the decimal system of representing numbers. This will take us on two digressions, but fortunately they are fairly important digressions which we would have had to study at some stage anyway. Place-value representation of natural numbers Our way of writing natural numbers involves only ten symbols, the digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. We are able to use just ten symbols to write natural numbers because the meaning of a symbol is dependent on its position within the number. Thus a 9 in the rst place (rightmost) means 9 lots of one, whereas a 9 in the second place means 9 lots of ten, and a 9 in the third place means 9 lots of one hundred, and so on. This is called the place-value system. The signicance of the numbers 1, 10, 100, ... are that they are the powers of 10, respectively 100 , 101 , 102 , .... (Well discuss why 100 should equal 1 shortly.) Thus the number 6853 quite literally means (6 103 ) + (8 102 ) + (5 101 ) + (3 100 ). We should mention briey that there is nothing magical about the number ten. By some quirk of fate mankind was given ten digits on his hands, which he used for counting, and so he invented a place-value system based upon the number ten. The ancient Babylonians based their system on the number sixty for some strange reason. In modern times, the advent of the computer has made base 2 very important. In base 2 there are only two digits, which well write as 0, 1, but which to a computer can be on, o. The principle is the same. The number 100112 (the subscript indicates the base) means literally (1 24 ) + (0 23 ) + (0 22 ) + (1 21 ) + (1 20 ) 16

which is equal to 1910 (I wont bother with subscripting the 10 from now on). The index laws for natural numbers Whenever we write a number raised to some power, the power to which it is raised is called the index or exponent. Thus in 102 the index of 10 is 2. Taking powers of a number is an easily dened operation when the exponent is a natural number. The operation an means multiply a by itself n times. So now if we consider am an , it means multiply a by itself m times, and n times, and multiply the two results. Well the net result of that is that you have multiplied a by itself m + n times. Weve just proved the rst index law! Similar reasoning gives us the other laws. am an = a(m+n) am an = a(mn) (am )n = amn Notice that our reasoning depended on our denition of taking powers, which only makes sense for natural numbers. In the second index law, if n > m, the right-hand side gives us a negative index, but we dont know what that means. After all can you multiply a by itself a negative number of times? What we do now is another common way in which mathematics proceeds. We take the index laws, proven for natural indices, and demand that they hold in a wider setting, eectively dening what we mean by negative indices. Now we see why 100 must equal 1, because we can put a = 10 and m = n into the second index law. Now it is possible to write down two more index laws based on these ideas. a0 = 1 provided a = 0 1 an = n a The index laws now apply to all integers, not just to natural numbers. Thats all I really wanted in order to introduce decimal notation, but while were here we might as well consider fractional indices. Consider what raising a number to the power 1/2 might mean. If we assume the rst index law holds for fractional powers then a1/2 a1/2 = a1/2+1/2 = a1 = a, or again by the third index law (a1/2 )2 = a(1/2)2 = a1 = a. 17

So a1/2 would have to be a number which squares to give a. Therefore an index of 1/2 means squareroot. Similarly an index of 1/3 means cuberoot, and so forth. In this way we can apply the index laws to all rational indices (however there is the slight problem that squareroots of negative numbers cant be done). In fact the index laws can be applied to any real numbers, including surds and numbers like . At the moment there is no way for me to explain what raising a number to the power means. This is a detail which is usually overlooked! We shall simply note that the same index laws work for all real numbers, and leave it at that. Place-value representation of real numbers The main reason for introducing the index laws at this time was to clarify what is meant by negative powers. The place-value system can now be extended, adding a decimal point to mark where the negative powers of 10 begin, and continuing the digits beyond the decimal point. Thus 681.25 means, literally 6 102 + 8 101 + 1 100 + 2 101 + 5 102 . Of course the digits past the decimal point, 0.25, would be 1/4 in fractional notation. We arrive at this through a division of 1 by 4, writing 1 as 1.00000... . After a couple of steps of the division there is no remainder, so the division stops and we have our answer. What happens when we try to write 1/3 in decimal form? (Try it!) Now 3 into 1 doesnt go, but 3 into 10 goes 3 times with remainder 1. So far we have the answer as 0.3. Then 3 into 10 goes 3 times with remainder 1. So far the answer is 0.33. But we must continue. We notice that it gets a bit repetitive, in fact very repetitive. No matter what we do the division is never completed, and the answer so far is a long string of 3s past the decimal point. Of course we cannot write down 3s forever, but once the to indicate that it continues pattern is established we can write a dot over the three, 0.3, forever, and now we have written 1/3 exactly in decimal notation. Now it is an interesting fact that every fraction may be written in a repeating decimal format, although it may involve not just one number repeating, but a whole block of where the two dots above numbers repeating. We nd that 1/7 is given by 0.14285 7, the number indicate that the whole block of numbers repeats. Fractions (in their lowest form) will only give terminating decimals if their denominators have only 2 or 5 as primes factors (can you think why?), so most fractions lead to repeating decimals. They must repeat since in any division there are only a nite number of dierent remainders possible. Once a remainder crops up which has appeared before the pattern must start to repeat. 18

Now we should see how a mathematician thinks. If every fraction gives rise to a repeating (or terminating) decimal, must every repeating decimal equal some fraction? The answer is YES! I dont want to give a full proof, but lets consider an example which 2 is a rational number; that captures all the necessary ideas. We will show that x = 0.73 is, it can be written as a fraction. 2 1000x = 732.73 2 x = 0.73 999x = 732 Therefore x = 732/999 = 244/333. So far we have outlined an important fact, or Theorem, which you should remember. Theorem A number is rational if and only if its decimal representation is repeating (or terminating). Of course a terminating decimal can always be thought of as having repeated 0s (or repeated 9s!). Now above we accepted the idea that once a pattern was established in the decimal representation of a number we could consider it to continue forever. Without accepting this we could not even write 1/3 as a decimal. But what about a pattern like 0.101001000100001000001.... ? It is quite clear what the pattern is, and how it should be extended forever, nevertheless this is not a rational number because it does not contain a repeating block of digits. Why shouldnt this be just as valid a number as 1/3? And for that matter, why does there have to be a predetermined pattern to the digits. If we were to write down the decimal representation of 2, for as many digits as we could be bothered, we would see no obvious pattern, and yet 2 is a real number. And so we come to the denition of the real numbers, as best we can in this course. The real numbers are all the possible numbers we can obtain be allowing neverending strings of decimal digits. This will include all the surds like 2 = 1.14142135... as well as even stranger numbers like = 3.1415926... . You should always remember that whenever you use decimals to represent numbers like these you are using an approximation because their decimal expansion continues forever. It is always good policy to leave numbers in their exact form ( 2 or ) until the very end of a calculation. This prevent inaccuracies and, believe it or not, makes algebra easier because converting everything into long strings of digits tends to hide patterns which would be obvious otherwise. Even at the end of a calculation there 19

is no need to give a decimal approximation unless you are asked for it. An answer of

is more accurate, more succinct, and more easily marked then an answer of 2.5066283. Exercises 3.1 1 2 3 4 Write 26 in base 2, base 5 and base 7. What number (base 10) does 111b represent if b = 2, 5 or 7? Evaluate. (a) 21 (b) 33 (c) 9 2
1

(d) 4 2
1

(e) 70 1 (e) 3 x
2

Write using index notation. 1 2 1 (b) 3 (c) x (d) (a) x x (2x + 5)4 5 Write without negative indices. (a) x5 (b) 2x3 (c) (2x)3 (d)

(32 (33 )4 ) 39 x2 a2 (b2 )6 (x2 )3 (y 3 )2 (e) 3 (f) (3y 2 )4 (g) (h) x a4 b9 x1 y 4 7 Write the following fractions as repeating decimals. (a) 26 29 22 (b) 33 37 (c) (25 )2 (d) (a) 2/9 8 (b) 3/11 (c) 3/7 (d) 7/13
2 (e) 1 11

1 x+y Use the index laws to simplify the following.

(e)

x+y xy

Write the following repeating decimals as fractions. (b) 0.2 3 (c) 0.234 5 (d) 1.23 (e) 0.9 (a) 0.4 9 Find 2 from your calculator, and write down all the digits it displays. Now subtract these digits away from 2. Why isnt the answer zero? Why doesnt the answer have more digits? Scientic notation and signicant gures

3.2

So far we have been looking at numbers the way a mathematician thinks of them. However in more practical disciplines, like the sciences and engineering, numbers are often treated somewhat dierently. Because the magnitude of numbers used in the sciences can vary widely, depending on the units used, it is common to report numbers in scientic notation. This consists of writing the number with just one digit left of the decimal point, multiplied by a power of 10, to indicate the order of magnitude. So for example the number 625 would be written 6.25 102 , and the number 0.625 would be written as 6.25 101 . Very large or very small numbers are reported this way on hand calculators. 20

Since in the sciences most numbers represent a measurement of some quantity, and that measurement will not be exact, it is conventional to indicate the accuracy of the measurement by reporting the value to a certain number of signicant gures. After all, when you listen to the weather at night, you dont expect to hear that the daily maximum was 25.3678 C ! It is extremely doubtful that the instruments used would be accurate beyond the rst decimal place, so the remaining digits are meaningless. To indicate this, the temperature should be reported as 25.4 C (three signicant gures). In fact, even if the temperature could be measured that accurately, for the purposes of reporting the weather the decimal digit is not relevant. Thus the temperature would probably be given as 25 C , which is two signicant gures. As a general rule, the last digit reported in the number should be the only one which is not certainly correct. Therefore a temperature of 25 C indicates that the temperature lies between 24.5 C and 25.5 C , whereas a temperature of 25.3 C indicates that the temperature lies between 25.25 C and 25.35 C . Note that leading zeroes in a decimal do not count towards signicant gures, since they indicate the order of magnitude of the number, not its accuracy. On the other hand, nal zeroes past the decimal point do count towards signicant gures, since they indicate improved accuracy. Exercises 3.2 1 2 3 Write the following numbers in scientic notation. (a) 7892 (a) 987 (b) 0.007654 (b) 9.87 (c) 760 (d) 7.765 How many signicant gures have each of the following. (c) 9.870 (d) 0.0987 Three students working together on an experiment each wrote their lab reports separately, giving their results as 1 2 , 0.5 and 0.50. Explain why none of these answers are the same. Epilogue Complex numbers

3.3

Lets now review how we stand with our number systems. We began with the natural numbers, then the integers, then the rational numbers. At this stage we had a system which was closed under the usual operations (we called it a eld), and was sucient for everyday use. We were still missing important numbers we knew existed, however, like 2 and , so we invented decimal representation and allowed neverending strings of digits to represent numbers. This captures all the numbers we wanted, and is still a eld. We should be happy with the number system we have arrived at, and indeed for the purposes 21

of this course we are content. However, since there is but one step to go in this process, lets just mention it in passing. Recall that we used Pythagoras Theorem to justify that there must be a number x such that x2 = 2, and we called that number 2 because there was no convenient way to write it as a fraction or as a decimal. Now I cant draw a triangle with hypotenuse of length -1, but still I might wish to solve x2 = 1. Now the real numbers are no use to me here because anything squared is greater than (or equal to) zero. Pragmatically I could blunder forward and invent the number 1, just as we invented the number 2. This is what mathematicians do, and the resulting numbers are called complex numbers. For some reason people baulked at this notation, and decided instead to give it the special name i, but whats in a name? For whatever reason, this number is termed imaginary, and unfortunately this has led to the belief that it is not a true number. Initially you will probably also hold this belief. Nonetheless, you can add it, subtract it, multiply and divide it, and do algebraic operations with it so if its not a number, at least it behaves like one. A complex number is a number which can be written as a + ib where a and b are real numbers and i is the squareroot of -1. Most often a complex variable is represented by the letter z , just as most often real variables are represented by an x (as rst preference). The real and imaginary parts of the complex number z = a + ib are Re(z ) = a Im(z ) = b.

The complex conjugate of a number is the number obtained by changing the sign of its imaginary part, and is denoted by a bar over the variable. Thus if z = a + ib the complex conjugate of z is z = a ib. Performing arithmetic with complex numbers is just like doing algebra, except that high powers of i can be simplied using the property that i2 = 1. Addition and subtraction are simple. (2 + 3i) + (7 6i) = 9 3i (2 + 3i) (7 6i) = 5 + 9i Multiplication is nearly as easy. (2 + 3i)(7 6i) = 14 12i + 21i 18i2 = 32 + 9i (since i2 = 1) Division is performed in much the same way as rationalising the denominator of surds multiplying by 1 in disguise. The particular disguise of 1 which works is to divide the 22

conjugate of the denominator by itself, thus 2 + 3i 2 + 3i 7 + 6i = 7 6i 7 6i 7 + 6i 14 + 12i + 21i + 18i2 = 49 36i2 4 + 33i . = 85 Exercises 3.3 1. 2. Find the real and imaginary parts, and the complex conjugate of the complex numbers 5 + 3i and 2 2i. Add, subtract, multiply and divide the numbers 5 + 3i and 3 + 5i.

23

Lecture 4.

Basic algebra

This lecture is intended to develop a smorgasbord of algebraic skills which will be needed throughout the rest of the course. Algebra is, unfortunately, one of those areas in which there is no substitute for experience. It is always helpful to know why things are true, but in algebra it is not just knowing the rules, it is knowing when and how to apply them. This usually requires lots of exercises. By doing many examples in which you arrive at similar situations you learn to recognise algebraic patterns, and how to deal with them. Algebra is the manipulation of symbols (usually we use letters, sometimes Greek letters) using the rules of arithmetic. In eect the pronumeral takes the place of a number, any number, and so by performing an algebraic calculation we are nding an answer which is valid for any choice of numbers. A consequence of this is that we cannot use any properties which are specic to particular numbers. For example, x/y cannot be reduced to a fraction of lower form algebraicly, despite the fact that for some choices of x and y (say x = 3, y = 6) there is a lower form. 4.1 The Laws of Arithmetic

In this section we will note some well known facts about the way arithmetic operations can be manipulated. Most of these facts are so well known we wont need to comment about them any further. The Commutative Law Both addition and multiplication are commutative; that is, the numbers can be interchanged without aecting the result. a+b=b+a ab=ba For example 2 + 3 = 3 + 2 and 2 3 = 3 2. Of course subtraction and division are not commutative; 2 3 = 3 2 and 2 3 = 3 2. The Associative Law Both addition and multiplication are associative; that is, the order in which the operation is performed does not matter. (Bracketed expressions are calculated rst discussed below in 4.2) (a + b) + c = a + (b + c) (a b) c = a (b c) 24

For example (2+3)+4 = 5+4 = 9 and 2+(3+4) = 2+7 = 9. Similarly (2 3) 4 = 6 4 = 24 and 2 (3 4) = 2 12 = 24. Of course subtraction and division are not associative; 2 1 (2 3) 4 = 1 4 = 5 but 2 (3 4) = 2 (1) = 3 and (2 3) 4 = 2 3 4 = 12 = 6 8 but 2 (3 4) = 2 3 4 = 3. The Distributive Law Multiplication is said to be distributive over addition. This means that when we multiply the sum of two numbers, it is the same as multiplying each number in turn, and adding the results. a (b + c) = (a b) + (a c) For example 2 (3 + 4) = 2 7 = 14 which is the same as (2 3) + (2 4) = 6 + 8 = 14. When the distributive law is used in the direction given above we would say we expanded the expression. If it is used is the reverse direction it is called factoring the expression. Use of the distributive law in either direction is the standard move in most algebraic problems. One of the most common situations encountered is (a + b)(c + d) = (a + b)c + (a + b)d = ac + bc + ad + bd. Probably the best way to do this is to begin with a term from the rst set of brackets, and multiply it by each term from the second set; then take the next term from the rst set of brackets and repeat the process.

Factoring expressions (that is, using the distributive law in reverse) is a more dicult task as it sometimes requires a good eye to recognise the potential factors. This only comes from experience. An easy case is when each term of an expression has the same variable occuring in it. For example a3 3ab2 + 2a2 b has an a in each term, and so we can factor this to give a(a2 3b2 + 2ab). 25

What is less easy to see is that a2 3b2 + 2ab can also be factored. Check that (a + 3b)(a b) = a2 3b2 + 2ab! So now the original expression can be written as a3 3ab2 + 2a2 b = a(a + 3b)(a b). Well develop some algebraic tricks of the trade to try and make factoring easier. Exercises 4.1 1 Use the distributive law to expand the following expressions. (b) 2(3t 4) (t + 1) (e) 6a3 + 3a(a2 2a + 6) (c) (p + 3)(p + q 4) (f) 2y (6 + 4y ) 6y (2 3y )

(a) 2y (4 y ) (d) 3x2 + 2x(x 4) (g) (x + 3)(x + 2) (j) (n 3)(n + 3) (m) (a + b)(a2 + b2 ) 2 Use the distributive (a) ax + ay (d) 7ab + 14bc (g) at2 + 2at + 5t (j) uv + 5u + 3v + 15 (m) xy + y 2 x y 4.2

(h) (m + 1)(m 6) (i) (3c + 4)(5c 3) 2 (l) (a 7)(3a2 a) (k) (n + 3) (n) (a + 1)(a2 + 3a + 3) (o) (2x2 3x)(x3 x2 + 3x 4) law in reverse to factorise the following expressions. (c) 5a2 15a (b) y 2 4y (e) 3 + 6x (f) x3 + 7ax2 (h) 8m2 n + 6mn2 + 10mn (i) (a + b)2 + x(a + b) (k) 2xy 3yz + 4x 6z (l) x(a b) + y (b a) (n) 4 4x + cx c (o) x3 3x2 + 2x 6

Precedence of operations

As we saw in the last section, there are times when the order in which operations are 8 performed aects the result. For example 2 3 4 could equal 1 6 or 3 depending on which of the divisions is performed rst. We therefore need a convention to determine which of these answers we mean. The diculty is with the notation, and the fact that it is ambiguous; that is, there are two possible interpretations of the expression 2 3 4. The convention which is applied to remove this ambiguity is known as the precedence of operations, or the order of operations, and it merely tells us which operations recieve priority over others. In this way, any mathematical expression will have one and only one meaning to everybody, so there can be no ambiguity. I stress that the rules we are about to write down are a convention. We could have chosen other rules, but those given here are universally accepted.

26

Precedence rules (i) Perform all operations on bracketed groups of objects rst. (Note that the numerator and denominator of a fraction are considered to be grouped even if the brackets are not specically written. The same applies to expressions under squareroot signs.) (ii) (iii) (iv) Perform all exponentiation (taking powers) next. Then all multiplications and divisions, working left to right. Finally all additions and subtractions, working left to right. Under these rules we see that 2 3 4 = 1 6 , because there are no groupings, or powers, and by rule three we evaluate the divisions working from left to right. Exercise 4.2 Evaluate the following expressions. (a) 6 32 2 3 (b) (6 3)2 2 3 (f) 33 + 3 64 (e) 15 + 5 23 4.3 Squaring

(c) 6 3(22) 3 (g) 81 9

(d) 6 (32 2) 3 (h) 81 9

Some algebraic operations occur so frequently that it is worthwhile treating them as special, and remembering specic tricks to solve them. One such example is squaring a sum. (a + b)2 = (a + b) (a + b) = a2 + ab + ba + b2 = a2 + 2ab + b2 . This formula is beautifully illustrated by drawing a square whose side has length a + b!

27

In words you would say, the square of a sum, is the sum of the squares plus twice the product. It is an extremely common (and unforgivable) mistake to forget that last bit! As with a lot of algebra, this rule is simply an application of the distributive law, and can therefore be applied in reverse; and as usual this is more dicult since you need to be able to spot the factor to use. For example a2 + 6a + 9 = (a + 3)2 or 4x2 + 4xy + y 2 = (2x + y )2 . Not so easy, but it comes with practice. In the last case, for example, we just look for terms which are obviously squares. This gives us (2x)2 and y 2 . A quick check shows the remaining term is twice the product; 4xy = 2(2x)(y ). A very similar result is (a b)2 = (a b) (a b) = a2 ab ba + (b)2 = a2 2ab + b2 . In fact this can be thought of as (a + (b))2 , and then it is seen to be just a special case of the previous rule. Exercises 4.3 1 Expand the following. (b) (y 2)2 (a) (x + 5)2 (d) (3a 2b)2 (e) (m2 + n2 )2

(c) (x + 2y )2 (f) (3xy z )2 (c) 9a2 + 4b2 + 12ab 1 (f) x2 + 2 + 2 x

Write the following as perfect squares. (a) x2 + 4x + 4 (b) t2 8t + 16 1 (e) s2 + s + (d) s2 + 4t2 4st 4 Completing the square

4.4

Consider an expression like x2 + 12x. We could factorise this as x(x + 12), and in many circumstances that is what we would want to do, but suppose for some reason we wanted to write it in such a way that a square appeared. How could we do that? 28

Comparing x2 + 12x with a2 + 2ab + b2 we see that x2 could play the role of one of the squared terms, and 12x could play the role of twice the product. This gives us x = a and 12x = 2ab, so b must be 6. Unfortunately we dont have anything to play the role of b2 . All is not lost. We simply do nothing by adding and subtracting the term we want, in this case b2 = 36. Thus x2 + 12x = (x2 + 12x + 36) 36 = (x + 6)2 36. This process is called completing the square. The number to be added and subtracted is always the twice the product term (2ab), halved and divided by the rst square ((2ab)/(2a) = b), then squared (b2 ). One more example, t2 4 2t = (t2 4 2t + 8) 8 = (t 2 2)2 8. The reason we added and subtracted 8 was that 8 = Exercises 4.4 1 Complete the square on the following. (a) x2 + 8x (b) y 2 16y (c) m2 14m (d) y 2 + 3y (e) a2 + a (f) x2 + 2 7x (g) x2 + 8xy (h) 4a2 4ab + 4 4 2t 2t
2

29

Lecture 5.
5.1

More algebra

Factorising quadratic expressions (monic)

An expression of the form ax2 + bx + c where a, b, c are numbers and x is the variable, is said to be quadratic in x. We would like to be able to factorise such an expression into the product of linear expressions; that is, expressions of the form ax + b. It is not always possible to do this, and even if it is possible it may be too dicult to do easily, but we wish to develop some method to try to factorise quadratic expressions if possible. The rst case we will consider is that of a monic quadratic, which just means that the coecient of the x2 term is 1. Consider (x + a)(x + b) = x2 + (a + b)x + ab. By comparing our monic quadratic with the right-hand side of this equation we may be able to nd two numbers a and b which will work. For example, given the quadratic x2 + 4x + 3, and comparing it with the above, we need to nd two numbers a and b such that a + b = 4 and ab = 3. The two numbers which do this are 1 and 3, so we have found that x2 + 4x + 3 factors to give (x + 1)(x + 3). If you have any doubts you can always check your answer by expanding it; (x + 1)(x + 3) = x2 + 3x + x + 3 = x2 + 4x + 3. One more example. To factorise m2 2m 15 we would need to nd two numbers which add to give 2 and multiply to give 15. In my head I would think of factors of 15 which dier by 2, and come up with 3 and 5. Since the product should be negative I need to make one of the numbers negative, and since the sum is also to be negative, it should be the bigger one that is negative. In this way I arrive at 3 and -5. Lets check it, (m + 3)(m 5) = m2 5m + 3m 15 = m2 2m 15 so it worked.

30

Exercises 5.1 1 By inspection, nd values of a and b satisfying a + b = 10 a+b = 8 (a) (b) (c) ab = 21 ab =7 (d) 2

a+b ab

= -10 = 24

a+b = 8 a + b = -3 a+b = 5 (e) (f) ab = 15 ab = -28 ab = -6 Factorise the following monic quadratics. (Refer to question 1) (b) x2 + 8x + 7 (e) x2 3x 28 (b) y 2 + 6y + 5 (e) b2 29b + 100 (c) x2 10x + 24 (f) x2 + 5x 6 (c) z 2 z 110 (f) m2 + 4m 77

(a) x2 + 10x + 21 (d) x2 + 8x + 15 3 (a) x2 2x 63 (d) a2 + 14a + 45 5.2

Factorise the following monic quadratics.

Factorising quadratic expressions (non-monic)

Now we have to deal with the case where the coecient of the squared term is not 1. One solution is the do nothing option; dividing and multiplying by the coecient to create a monic quadratic. For example we could write 4y 2 + 4y 3 as 4 (y 2 + y 3 4 ) and then factor (y 2 + y 3 4 ) by the method above. This is ne, but tends to introduce messy fractions. Ill outline another method, whose proof may seem a little confusing, but which is easy enough to use. We wish to factor a quadratic into linear factors, so ax2 + bx + c = (dx + e)(f x + g ). Expanding these we nd that a = df b = ef + dg c = eg This means that ac = (df )(eg ) = (ef )(dg ). That is, there are factors of ac whose sum is b. We can then write ax2 + bx + c = ax2 + ef x + dgx + c = df x2 + ef x + dgx + eg = f x(dx + e) + g (dx + e) = (dx + e)(f x + g ) 31 and

Perhaps we need to demonstrate this with an example! Lets try to factorise 4y 2 + 4y 3. Then ac = 12 and b = 4. Factors of 12 whose sum is 4 are 6 and 2. So 4y 2 + 4y 3 = 4y 2 + 6y 2y 3 = 2y (2y + 3) (2y + 3) = (2y 1)(2y + 3). Yes, I agree that factoring quadratics can be a bit tricky, and it is something which I am not too good at either. Usually if it is easy, a bit of trial and error can work. A harder example can be done by the methods above, but you are not guaranteed that there will be a solution. In a short while we will introduce the quadratic formula, which will give a foolproof means of factoring. Nevertheless, the methods here are quicker and easier on simple problems which work out to have neat solutions. Exercises 5.2 1. Factorise the following non-monic quadratics. (a) 3x2 + 5x + 2 (b) 2x2 + 5x + 2 (c) 2x2 + 7x + 3 (e) 3x2 13x + 14 (f) 10x2 7x + 12 (d) 6x2 7x 3 Dierences of squares

5.3

Another situation which arises very frequently is the dierence between two squares. Observe that by the distributive law (a + b)(a b) = a2 ab + ba b2 = a2 b2 This tells us that the dierence of two squares can always be factored into the sum of the two numbers times the dierence of the numbers. (It was this rule that was at the heart of rationalising denominators of surds.) Exercises 5.3 1 Factorise the following. (a) x2 16 (b) y 2 x2 (e) 25 n2 (f) a2 b2 c2

(c) 4a2 9b2 (g) x4 y 4

(d) 4a2 2b2 (h) (y + 4)2 (y 2)2

32

 5.4

Sums and dierences of higher powers

There are a few more algebraic tricks which, although they are not needed as often as those above, are still handy to know. Recall that we have already considered the dierence of two squares. x2 y 2 = (x y )(x + y ). We might well ask about the dierence of two cubes. Is there a similar formula? Yes there is! x3 y 3 = (x y )(x2 + xy + y 2 ) To prove it we simply expand the right-hand side of the equation and observe all the terms which cancel. (x y )(x2 + xy + y 2 ) = x3 x2 y + x2 y xy 2 + xy 2 y 3 = x3 y 3 Now if it works for squares and cubes, perhaps it should work for higher powers. Indeed it does. Following the pattern for x4 y 4 gives us x4 y 4 = (x y )(x3 + x2 y + xy 2 + y 3 ). (In fact in this case we can do better. Treating it as a dierence of squares, x4 y 4 = (x2 )2 (y 2 )2 , we can factor it as (x2 y 2 )(x2 + y 2 ) and then the rst term factors again to give (x y )(x + y )(x2 + y 2 ).) Since such a nice pattern exists for the dierence of powers, we might expect a nice pattern for the sum of two powers. However, there is no such pattern for squares, since x2 + y 2 cannot be factored. Our hopes are not dashed yet though. If we experiment with the sum of two cubes we nd x3 + y 3 = (x + y )(x2 xy + y 2 ). Once again to prove this we simply expand (x + y )(x2 xy + y 2 ) = x3 + x2 y x2 y + xy 2 xy 2 + y 3 = x3 + y 3 . More experimenting would show that for x4 + y 4 we again cant do anything, but that x5 + y 5 = (x + y )(x4 x3 y + x2 y 2 xy 3 + y 4 ). 33

So there seems to be a pattern for the sum of odd powers but not for the sum of even powers. Exercises 5.4 1. 2. 5.5 Factorise x6 y 6 . Factorise x7 y 7 and x7 + y 7 . Pascals Triangle

Earlier we saw how to square a sum, (x + y )2 = x2 + 2xy + y 2 , but often we may wish to cube a sum, or take even higher powers. Of course this can be done by repeated applications of the distributive law, expanding and expanding again. This process is not only time consuming, it is likely to result in a silly mistake. It would be nice to have a simple method for doing these higher powers. Like most of algebra, it comes down to spotting the right pattern. Consider (x + y )3 = (x + y )(x + y )2 = (x + y )(x2 + 2xy + y 2 ) = x3 + 2x2 y + xy 2 + x2 y + 2xy 2 + y 3 = x3 + 3x2 y + 3xy 2 + y 3 . For fourth powers we have (x + y )4 = (x + y )(x + y )3 = (x + y )(x3 + 3x2 y + 3xy 2 + y 3 ) = x4 + 3x3 y + 3x2 y 2 + xy 3 + x3 y + 3x2 y 2 + 3xy 3 + y 4 = x4 + 4x3 y + 6x2 y 2 + 4xy 3 + y 4 . Now if we write these out, along with the rules for lower powers, a pattern starts to emerge. (x + y )0 = 1 (x + y )1 = x + y (x + y )2 = x2 + 2xy + y 2 (x + y )3 = x3 + 3x2 y + 3xy 2 + y 3 (x + y )4 = x4 + 4x3 y + 6x2 y 2 + 4xy 3 + y 4 Observe how across each row we run through terms in x and y which diminish by one power of x each time, and increase by one power of y . Can you also spot the pattern 34

among the coecients? If we write them separately, dropping all the variables it may be more apparent. 1 1 1 1 1 4 3 6 2 3 4 1 1 1 1

This pattern is very famous, and is known as Pascals Triangle. Notice how each term can be found by adding the two terms above it, to left and right. So the next row of the triangle would be 1 5 10 10 5 1. If our hunch is correct we should now be able to write down the formula for (x + y )5 . Firstly we get the pattern of the variables correct. x5 + x4 y + x3 y 2 + x2 y 3 + xy 4 + y 5 Then we add the coecients from the fth row of Pascals triangle, (I count the starting row of 1 as the zeroth row!). 1x5 + 5x4 y + 10x3 y 2 + 10x2 y 3 + 5xy 4 + 1y 5 As one of your exercises you can check that this is correct. Why does it work? I dont want to give a full proof, but some explanation is in order. Lets take (x + y )4 as our example, and look at the coecient of x2 y 2 . Writing (x + y )4 = (x + y )(x + y )3 , think about how we could get terms involving x2 y 2 . These can arise in two ways; either we multiply x from the rst set of brackets by xy 2 from the second set, or y from the rst set of brackets by x2 y from the second set. So the coecient of x2 y 2 in (x + y )4 comes from the sum of the coecients of xy 2 and x2 y in (x + y )3 ; that is, the two numbers above to the left and right in Pascals triangle! Exercises 5.5 1. 2. Extend Pascals triangle to the sixth row. Expand (x + y )5 using the distributive law, and check the result against that predicted above by Pascals triangle. 3. Use Pascals triangle to expand the following. (a) (a + b)6 (b) (x y )4 (c) (x + 2y )3 35

Lecture 6.

Solving equations

You guessed it, more algebra! In the last two lectures we looked at ways of manipulating expressions into dierent forms without changing their substance. To this end we found the mathematical principle of doing nothing (in a clever way) very useful. In this chapter we will be concerned with equality between two mathematical expressions, and ways of manipulating these into dierent forms without changing their substance. To this end the mathematical principle of do the same thing to both expressions (in a clever way) will be the unifying idea. 6.1 Changing the subject of a formula

The words formula and equation are virtually synonymous. Perhaps the word formula suggests a mystical power, a magical way to solve a problem, whereas a mere equation is just a true mathematical statement. Tied up with this perception is the idea that a formula must have a subject whereas an equation need not. The subject of a formula is the variable which the formula is about, and so it takes the form variable = expression. To demonstrate this distinction, compare the formula 1 s = ut + at2 2 whose subject is s, with the equation 2(s ut) = at2 which has no subject. Often we will be confronted with an equation without a subject, or with the wrong variable (from our point of view) as the subject. It is then our task to manipulate the equation so as to make the desired variable the subject, and guarantee that the equality is still true. The only legitimate moves in this game are to perform the same operations on both sides of the equality, since doing the same thing to two equal quantities keeps them equal. Consider the following example. m 1 4= 3 2 We wish to make m the subject of the equation, so we would like to get rid of everything but the m from the left. To get rid of the 4 we add 4 to both sides, thus m 4+4= 3 m = 3 36 1 +4 2 1 9 +4= . 2 2

Notice that it appears that the 4 shifts to the other side of the equation, with a change of sign; and I suppose it does, but the reason it does is that we performed the same operation on two equal things, so they remained equal. Next we multiply both sides of the equation by 3, thus m 9 3= 3 3 2 27 . m= 2 We have nished, since m is now the subject. Again it appears that a 3 underneath on one side of the equation shifts to be a 3 on top of the other side. This is true enough, but dont think of it as a special rule its just another case of doing the same thing to both sides. We could also have done this another way. Firstly we could have multiplied both sides by 3. 3 m 4 3 =3 1 2

Notice that the entire expression on both sides is multiplied by 3, so this becomes m 12 = Now adding 12 to both sides gives the answer m 12 + 12 = 3 + 12 2 27 . m= 2 3 . 2

One more example. Find the value of x if x+1 x + = 5. 3 4 The rst step towards simplifying this is to get rid of all fractions. This can be done by multiplying both sides by 12. (Why 12? Because it is the LCM of 3 and 4!) 12 x+1 x + 3 4 = 12 5

4(x + 1) + 3x = 60 7x + 4 = 60 Now we subtract 4 from both sides to get 7x = 56 37

and divide both sides by 7 to arrive at x = 8. Exercises 6.1 1 Find the value of the variable in each of the following equations. (a) y 7 = 2 (d) 42 = 7x (g) 3(x + 6) = 2(x + 40) (j) 9a + 8 = 3a + 44 x+2 = 40 (m) 5 x 15 x (p) 2 = + 3 6 2 2 (b) 5x = 40 (e) 7m = 5m + 16 (h) 4(x 3) = 12 (k) 9y = 5(y + 8) 12 (n) =3 x 3x + 4 (q) =2 x (c) a = 8 (f) 11x + 17 = 39 (i) 172 (7y + 18) = 5(y + 20) (l) 3(3y + 1) = 4(y + 8) 9 3 (o) =4 2x x x 4 (r) + =1 x+2 x+6

Make x the subject of each of the following equations. 1 (a) y = 3x 4 (b) y = (c) y = x 9 x 1 x+1 (e) y = +3 (f) xy = x + y (d) y = 2x + 1 x+3 Simultaneous equations - by substitution

6.2

So far we have dealt with individual equations involving just one unknown. We now wish to consider the problem of satisfying two (or more) equations, involving two (or more) unknowns. These are refered to as simultaneous equations, since we seek a solution that not only works for one of the equations, but satises all of them simultaneously. We have already encountered this type of problem before. Remember when we learned to factor the quadratic x2 + 4x + 3, we sought two numbers a and b which added to give 4 and multiplied to give 3. That is, a+b=4 and ab = 3.

These are simultaneous equations, and by the staring into space method we found the solution a = 1 and b = 3. For most simultaneous equations the staring into space method fails, so we may need to do some algebra. The principle of the method of substitution is to choose one of the equations to be solved, and rearrange it to make one of the variables its subject. The resulting formula is then substituted for that variable in the other equations, eectively removing one variable (and one equation) from the system. This process is repeated until only one equation with one variable remains, and can be solved as usual. Working back through the previous equations yields the values of all the other variables. In principle 38

it doesnt matter which equations or variables are removed, or in what order, though in practise some options will be easier than others, and only experience (that is, doing the exercises!) can help you decide what is the easiest path to the answer. As our rst example consider the following system of two simultaneous equations. 3a + 2b = 5 2a b = 6 Rearranging the rst of these to make a the subject leads to 5 2b . 3 This formula for a is substituted into the second equation, which therefore becomes a= 2 5 2b 3 b = 6.

This is a single equation, with only one unknown, b, so we can solve it as usual. Multiplying both sides by 3 gives us 2(5 2b) 3b = 18 10 7b = 18 7b = 28 b = 4. Once we have found the value for b we can substitute it into the formula for a, to nd a = (5 8)/3 = 1. So the solution to the problem is a = 1 and b = 4. Check that these actually do satisfy the original two equations! Now a harder example. Find all possible solution of the pair of simultaneous equations, x2 + y 2 = 16 3x 4y 20 = 0. In this case we will rearrange the second equation, since the presence of squares in the rst makes it a little more dicult to manipulate. From the second equation we nd 3x 20 . 4 Substituting this into the rst equation gives y= 3x 20 4 9x2 120x + 400 16 x2 +
2

= 16 = 16

x2 +

16x2 + (9x2 120x + 400) = 256 25x2 120x + 144 = 0. 39

We now need to be able to solve this quadratic equation in order to obtain the answer. Can you see that this factors? In fact its a perfect square, (5x 12)2 = 0 and so x = 12/5, which gives y = 16/5. Exercises 6.2 Solve the following systems of simultaneous equations by 5x + 2y = 12 ab=2 (a) (b) (c) 3x 2y = 4 a+b=4 2x + 3y = 14 7t + v = 12 (d) (e) (f) x + 3y = 4 4t + v = 13 4w1 + 3w2 = 11 y = x2 (i) (h) (g) 3w1 + w2 = 2 y=x (j) 6.3 x2 + y 2 = 9 x+y =3 (k) xy = 1 4x y + 3 = 0 (l) substitution. 4p 3q = 11 5p + 3q = 7 4x + 5y + 2 = 0 4x + y + 10 = 0 y = x2 2x + y = 0 a+b=2 b+c=3 a+c=4

Simultaneous equations - by elimination

The substitution method can be applied to a wide range of simultaneous equations, which is a great advantage, but it is not always the neatest approach. The method of elimination is often less cumbersome than substitution, but it can only be applied to some problems. The most common problem to which the method of elimination can be applied is simultaneous linear equations. An equation is linear if none of the variables are raised to any power (other than 1); ax + by + c = 0 is the general form of a linear equation with two variables x and y . The principle of elimination is to add (or subtract) the equations from one another so as to cancel one of the variables, hence the term elimination. In fact this is just a special case of do the same thing to both sides of the equation. In order to get the desired cancellation it may be necessary to multiply one or all equations by some constants. For example, consider the system of equations we did above by substitution. 3a + 2b = 5 2a b = 6 If we decided to eliminate the variable b, we would double the second equation to get 3a + 2b = 5 4a 2b = 12. 40

Now when we add the equations all the bs disappear, leaving 7a = 7. So a = 1, and substituting this back into either equation gives us b = 4. (Checking this in both equations is a good means of ensuring you didnt make a mistake!) Once again well do the same problem, but this time eliminating the a variable. In this case I will multiply the rst equation by 2 and the second equation by 3, so that the coecients of a are the same in both equations. 6a + 4b = 10 6a 3b = 18 Now we subtract these equations from one another to eliminate a, 7b = 28 and once again we arrive at the same answer, b = 4 and a = 1, which is comforting. Now although this method is often used on simultaneous linear equations, the idea can be used in other cases. Consider the equations x2 + y 2 = 16 y = x2 14. If we write the second equation in reverse order, x2 + y 2 = 16 x2 14 = y and subtract, we can eliminate the x2 term. y 2 + 14 = 16 y This is again a quadratic equation y 2 + y 2 = 0, which we can factor to give (y +2)(y 1) = 0. So there are two possible answers for y , namely y = 2 and y = 1. The corresponding values of x are obtained by back substitution, to give x2 = 12 and x2 = 15 respectively. So there are in fact four dierent pairs of values which work; x = 2 3 y = 2 x = 2 3 y = 2 x = 15 y = 1 x = 15 y = 1. Exercises 6.3 Repeat Exercise 6.2 using the method of elimination, if possible. 41

Lecture 7.
7.1

Quadratic equations

Solving quadratic equations by factoring

The simplest of all algebraic expressions is the linear expression ax + b, where a, b are numbers and x is the variable. We would say this expression is linear in x. It contains x only to the powers 0 and 1 (the constant term can be thought of as bx0 ). A linear equation is one which can be put in the form ax + b = 0, and this is very easy to solve (x = b/a) so we shall move on to the next most common expression. We saw before that a quadratic expression is one in the form ax2 + bx + c where a, b, c are numbers and x is the variable. We say that the expression is quadratic in x. It contains x only to the powers 0, 1 and 2. A quadratic equation is one which can be put in the form ax2 + bx + c = 0 and we would like to develop a general technique to solve such equations. Mathematics is built on a few very simple principles which are often so obvious you would wonder that they are useful at all. Here is another one. If the product of two (or more) numbers is zero, then one of the numbers is itself zero. Thus if xy = 0 then x = 0 or y = 0 and if xyz = 0 then x = 0 or y = 0 or z = 0 and so on. (Notice that here I am using the mathematical or, the so called inclusive or, which means one or the other or both. The usual or of common speech is the exclusive or, which means one or the other but not both. ) Consider the quadratic equation x2 + 4x + 3 = 0. We have seen earlier how to factor the quadratic expression on the left of this equation, (x + 1)(x + 3) = 0. 42

Now this is in the form of a product of two numbers the numbers (x + 1) and (x + 3) equals zero. By the principle outlined above this means that one of the two numbers must itself be zero. We therefore conclude that x + 1 = 0 or x + 3 = 0. This gives us two possible solutions to the equation, either x = 1 or x = 3. On more example along these lines; 4y 2 + 4y 3 = 0. We saw earlier that this factors to give (2y 1)(2y + 3) = 0. Then either (2y 1) = 0 or (2y + 3) = 0. Thus the two 3 possible solutions are y = 1 2 or y = 2 . Exercises 7.1 1 Write down the solutions of the following equations. (a) (x 4)(x 6) = 0 (d) (3x 2)(x + 3) = 0 2 (b) (y + 2)(y 2) = 0 (e) 4b(2b 3) = 0 (c) x(x + 5) = 0 (f) (x + 1)(x + 2)(x 3) = 0 (c) z 2 + 13z + 40 = 0 (f) c2 + 15c + 36 = 0 (i) h2 4h + 4 = 0 (l) 2r2 11r + 12 = 0 (o) 41x = 3 + 26x2 (r) 3x3 13x2 + 14x = 0

Solve the following equations by factoring. (a) x2 + 7x + 12 = 0 (b) y 2 + 8y + 7 = 0 (e) b2 10b + 25 = 0 (d) x2 8x + 7 = 0 (g) x2 2x 8 = 0 (h) d2 10d 11 = 0 (k) 2q 2 + 5q + 2 = 0 (j) 3p2 + 5p + 2 = 0 (n) 2 + x 10x2 = 0 (m) 35x2 = 12x 1 (p) x3 + 3x2 + 2x = 0 (q) x3 + 6x2 + 9x = 0 The quadratic formula

7.2

The factorising method is very neat and tidy; when it works. However, it may not be easy to spot the factorisation of a quadratic expression and worse still this might be because there is no such factorisation! How can we decide this? There is a formula which we can use, the quadratic formula. It looks complicated, and most students who use it just learn that it works another piece of abracadabra mathematical magic but really we already have all the skills it needs to prove the formula. Theorem The quadratic formula.

The two possible solutions of the quadratic equation ax2 + bx + c = 0 43

are

Proof

b2 4ac . 2a Our rst step is to make the task easy by working with a monic quadratic, so x= b b c a x2 + x + a a = 0.

we write the equation as

Now a = 0, since if it were we would only have a linear equation, not a quadratric one, and the solution would be trivial. Since a = 0 then the other number must be equal to zero, c b x2 + x + = 0. a a We now complete the square on the quadratic expression by adding and subtracting the number ( 2ba )2 half the coecient of the x, squared to the left hand side. (Equivalently you could add this number to both sides of the equation.) c b b b x2 + x + + ( )2 ( )2 = 0 a a 2a 2a The reason we chose to add this strange number was to get a perfect square involving the variable x, 2 b b c x+ + ( )2 = 0. 2a a 2a Now all we need to do is make x the subject of the equation. b x+ 2a
2

b 2 c ) 2a a 2 4ac b = 2 2 4a 4a 2 b 4ac = 4a2 =(

Now we wish to take the squareroot of both sides of the equation; but rst a word of warning. Although the squareroot of a number is always considered positive, so 4 = 2, nevertheless the equation a2 = 4 has two valid answers, 2 and 2. So although squarerooting both sides of an equation maintains the equality, it does not give all possible solutions. For that we need to consider the negative as well as the positive squareroot. So x+ b = 2a b2 4ac 4a2 b2 4ac = 2a 44

Finally we arrive at the famous formula, which is one of the few which I will ask you to commit to memory: x= b b2 4ac . 2a

To see how this formula works, lets do the two examples above using it. For x2 + 4x + 3 = 0 we have a = 1, b = 4 and c = 3, so the formula gives the two solutions as x= 42 4 1 3 21 4 16 12 = 2 4 2 = 2 4

That is, the two solutions are x = 1 or x = 3, as we found before. Notice that this gives us the factorisation, (x (1))(x (3)) = (x + 1)(x + 3). For the other example, 4y 2 + 4y 3 = 0, we have a = 4, b = 4 and c = 3, so the formula gives the two solutions as 4 42 4 4 (3) y= 24 4 16 + 48 = 8 4 8 = 8 or y = 3 2 , as we found before. Notice that this gives 3 1 3 us the monic factorisation, (y 1 2 )(y ( 2 )) = (y 2 )(y + 2 ). If we now multiply by 3 the coecient of y 2 , namely 4, we arrive at the correct factorisation 4(y 1 2 )(y + 2 ) = (2y 1)(2y + 3). Now lets look at two more examples which cannot be done by factoring. Consider the equations x2 + 3x + 1 = 0 and x2 + x + 1 = 0. For the rst of these we have That is, the two solutions are y =
1 2

x=

32 4 1 1 3 = 21 2

This does allow us to solve the quadratic equation, and obtain a factorisation of sorts, but not in a way we were likely to nd by trial and error, requiring, as it does, surds. In the second case we have 1 12 4 1 1 1 3 x= = . 21 2 45

Now any number squared is positive (or zero), so there is no way to squareroot 3, (unless we use the complex numbers, see lecture 3). This tells us that there are no real solutions to the equation x2 + x + 1 = 0, and the expression x2 + x + 1 cannot be factored in any way using real numbers. One more example, similar to the last two. Consider the quadratic equation x2 + 2x + 1 = 0. You may be able to see how to factor this, but lets suppose not and use the formula. 2 22 4 1 1 x= 21 Now because the expression within the squareroot is zero, the two answers we get are x = 1 and x = 1, so in fact there is only one answer to the equation although it is often useful to think of this as getting the same answer twice. This example, and the preceding two examples, demonstrate the importance of the term within the squareroot. This term is considered so important by some that they give it a special name, the discriminant, and a special symbol, , the capital Greek letter delta. The discriminant of the quadratic ax2 + bx + c is = b2 4ac, and the equation ax2 + bx + c = 0 has 2 distinct real solutions if > 0 1 repeated real solution if = 0 no real solutions if < 0

Exercises 7.2 1 Solve the following equations using the quadratic (b) 2x2 + 7x + 2 = 0 (a) x2 4x 1 = 0 (d) x2 + 3x + 5 = 0 (e) 3x2 + 9x + 5 = 0 (h) 6a2 + 5a = 6 (g) 4x2 36x = 0 (j) 4x2 12x + 9 = 0 (k) x2 = 2x + 48 formula, if a solution exists. (c) 7x2 = 4x + 1 (f) 9x2 6x + 1 = 0 (i) 7b2 3b 1 = 0 (l) 18x2 24x 3x3 = 0

Without solving the equations, use the discriminant to determine the number of distinct real solutions to the following quadratic equations. (a) 3x2 + 5x + 2 = 0 (b) 3x2 4x + 2 = 0 (c) 2x2 + x 2 = 0 (d) 9x2 30x + 25 = 0 (e) 7x2 5x + 4 = 0 (f) x2 + x +
1 4

=0

7.3

Solving cubic, quartic and higher order equations

Since we have solved linear and quadratic equations, it is natural to go one step further and ask about the solution of cubic (order 3), quartic (order 4) or even higher order 46

equations. It turns out that the solution of these is surprisingly dicult. So dicult, in fact, that for orders ve and above, it can be proven that there is no general procedure or formula which can ever solve the equation! However in special cases it may still be possible to nd solutions. Well consider some examples. Consider the cubic equation x3 x2 6x = 0. Although this is a cubic, and we dont know how to solve a cubic in general, this particular cubic has a factor of x, so we can write the equation as x(x2 x 6) = 0. For the product of two things to equal zero, one or other of them must be zero. We conclude that either x = 0 or x2 x 6 = 0. So the problem has been reduced from a cubic equation to a quadratic equation, which we can do. Factoring the quadratic we nd x2 x 6 = (x 3)(x + 2), and so the cubic factors as x3 x2 6x = x(x 3)(x + 2) and the solution of the equation is x = 0, 3 or 2. A similar, though harder problem, is to solve x3 x2 x + 1 = 0. Perhaps you can see at a glance that x = 1 works? This means that (x 1) must be a factor of this cubic. Having spotted this, you can factorise the expression through grouping pairs. (A more certain method is polynomial division.) With some experimentation we nd x3 x2 x + 1 = x2 (x 1) (x 1) = (x2 1)(x 1). Once again we have reduced the problem to a quadratic, but in fact its now very easy, since the factor x2 1 is the dierence of two squares, and so can be written (x + 1)(x 1). We have now factorised the cubic completely as x3 x2 x + 1 = (x + 1)(x 1)2 , and so the solution of the equation is x = 1 or x = 1 (twice). Another trick is to disguise a quadratic equation as something more dicult. Consider the equation x4 3x2 4 = 0. At rst glance this is a quartic in x, and so we have no way to solve it, but look more closely. It involves only even powers of x, and so can be thought of as a quadratic in x2 . If thats still not clear, try writing it as (x2 )2 3(x2 ) 4 = 0 and introduce a new variable m = x2 . Now the equation becomes m2 3m 4 = 0 which we can factor as (m 4)(m + 1) = 0. It follows that the solutions are m = 4 and m = 1. But wait! We cant stop there because the question was to nd x, not m. So in fact we get x2 = 4 or x2 = 1. The former tells us that x = 2 while the latter has no real solutions. Therefore the only values of x that work are 2. In eect we have factored the quartic as x4 3x2 4 = (x2 4)(x2 + 1) = (x + 2)(x 2)(x2 + 1). 47

Finally, while on the subject of quadratics in disguise, consider the following equation which appears on the surface to have nothing to do with quadratics. x+ 1 = 3 x

To solve this we could multiply both sides by x to get x2 + 1 = 3x, then add 3x to both sides of the equation to arrive at x2 + 3x + 1 = 0 which we solved earlier. You will nd that solving quadratic equations pops up again and again, when you least expect it. Exercises 7.3 Solve the following cubic equations. (a) x3 + 5x2 + 6x = 0 (b) x3 + 2x2 x 2 = 0 2 Solve the following quartic equations. (a) x4 5x2 + 4 = 0 (b) x4 8x3 + 15x2 = 0 3 Solve the following equations. 1 8 (a) x 1 = (b) x2 2 = 2 x+1 x 1

48

Lecture 8.

Inequalities

Dealing with inequalities is similar in many respects to dealing with equalities, however there are some complications. Once again the only legitimate move in simplifying inequalities is to do the same thing to both sides of the inequality, but unlike equalities, not all moves are valid. To understand what is permitted when solving inequalities, and what is not, we need to have an understanding of the ordering of the real numbers, and how the dierent operations aect that ordering. 8.1 The ordering of the real numbers

There are certain properties of the real numbers which are generally taken for granted since they are obvious. These fundamental properties are called axioms. We have already encountered some axioms: the associative, commutative and distributive laws of arithmetic. Another of these fundamental properties is that the real numbers have a natural ordering; that is, there is a way of comparing numbers which arranges them in a strict order. This ordering is usually referred to as greater than (or less than). Given any two numbers, then either they are equal or one is greater than the other. Well visualise the order on the real numbers by thinking of the number line. Travelling to the right on the number line is getting bigger, while travelling left is getting smaller. A number is greater than another number if it is further to the right on the number line, and less than the other number if it is further to the left. The symbols for greater than and less than are, respectively, > and <. In addition, if we wish to allow the chance of equality as well, we have greater than or equal to, , and less than or equal to, . So to describe all numbers greater than 2 but less than or equal to 4 we write 2 < x 4. An alternative way of describing these same numbers is via interval notation. (An interval is just a single, connected chunk out of the number line.) We would write x (2, 4]. Here the symbol means is an element of or is contained in, and the notation (2, 4] indicates all numbers between 2 and 4, excluding the 2 because of the rounded bracket, but including the 4 because of the square bracket. In order to describe the numbers which are greater than or equal to 1 we need a new symbol, , to represent innity. Thus we would write x [1, ). 49

(Note: Innity is not a number. It cannot be used as a number. It cannot be added, subtracted, multiplied or divided. You cannot perform arithmetic with , it is merely a notational convenience introduced because the real numbers do not have an end. Notice the interval notation always uses a rounded bracket next to to emphasise that it is not included in the real numbers.) If we wished to also include those numbers less than or equal to -1 we would write x (, 1] [1, ) where the symbol means the union of the two pieces; that is, x is in one interval or the other. A third way to represent the same information is graphically on a number line. The relevant regions on the number line are shaded darker, with an open circle to indicate a boundary of the region which is excluded and a closed circle to indicate a boundary which is included. Thus the numbers 2 < x 4 would be indicated graphically by

Exercises 8.1 1 Decide whether each of the following statements is true or false. (a) 5 > 3 (b)
1 7

1 5

(c)

1 7

< 1 5

(d)

22 7

(e)

1 2 2

1+

2 2

2 Express each of the following sets of numbers using interval notation and graphically. (a) 2 x < 1 8.2 (b) x > 3 or x 2 (c) x < 3 and x 2

Eect of operations on inequalities

In order to understand how and why various operations aect inequalities, we will consider their eect on the number line. Addition and subtraction Addition of a number a has the eect of translation (sliding) by a units to the right on the number line. (Of course a translation to the right by a negative amount actually takes you to the left.) 50

Similarly subtraction of a number a has the eect of translation by a units to the left. (Once again a left translation by a negative amount actually takes you to the right.) As a result of this, adding or subtracting the same number to both sides of an inequality simply leads to both numbers sliding along the number line by the same amount. Their relative positions, with regard to rightness and leftness, do not change, and so the inequality is unaected. Addition or subtraction of a number from both sides of an inequality preserves the inequality. For example, to solve 7x 13 > 6x + 22 we add 13 to both sides of the inequality 7x > 6x + 35 and subtract 6x from both sides x > 35.

Multiplication and division To visualise the eect of multiplication on the number line, imagine it as a rubber band, nailed down at zero. Multiplication by a positive number has the eect of stretching the rubber band by that factor. (Of course for a number less than 1 this is really a shrinking rather than a stretching.) 51

In a similar way division by a positive number is a shrinking of the rubber band by that factor (or stretching if the number you divide by is less than 1). The important point is, that while undergoing stretching or shrinking, numbers maintain their relative position on the band. Bigger numbers stay bigger, and smaller numbers stay smaller. Multiplication or division by a positive number on both sides of an inequality preserves the inequality. The eect of multiplication or division by a negative number is slightly dierent. The rubber band which is the number line is still stretched or shrunk by a factor equal to the size of the negative number, but the negative sign indicates a ipping of the number line.

Thus the positive arm gets stretched in the negative direction and the negative arm gets stretched in the positive direction. Due to this ipping of the numberline, the relative positions of all numbers (with respect to rightness or leftness) is reversed. The stretching or shrinking aspect does not change relative positions, thus 52

Multiplication or division by a negative number on both sides of an inequality reverses the inequality. For example to solve 6 3x > 18 we subtract 6 to both sides of the inequality 3x > 12 and divide both sides by 3, reversing the inequality since the division is by a negative x < 4. A far trickier problem, which continues to stump many students, is to solve the following inequality. 1 3 2 x If we subtract 2 from both sides and add 1/x to both sides we arrive at 1 1 . x

The trap is then to multiply both sides by x and claim the answer is x 1. Why is this wrong (or at least only partly right)? When multiplying an inequality by a number we need to reverse the inequality if the number is negative, and leave the inequality unchanged if the number is positive. In this case the number we are multiplying by is x, a variable, so we dont know if it is positive or negative. We therefore have to solve this problem in two parts. If x is positive; that is x > 0, we proceed as above to the solution x 1. The combination of these two conditions is just x 1. Alternatively, if x < 0 (negative), we proceed as above but reverse the inequality, to arrive at x 1. The combination of these conditions is x < 0. So in fact the full answer to the question is x1 or x < 0.

Other operations One has to be very wary about applying any operations other than those above to inequalities. Unlike equality, where if two things are equal, performing the same operation on both always leaves them equal - inequalities are much more ckle. For example 2 > 3, 53

but if we squared both sides we would be claiming that 4 > 9! By the same token 2 > 1 and if we square both sides we get 4 > 1, which is correct this time. To understand why, we have to understand what squaring does to the number line. Firstly squaring the positive numbers just stretches them out, although not uniformly. But squaring negative numbers ips them over to be positive, as well as stretching them.

Thus squaring folds the numberline over itself at zero, and the sense of order is lost by this folding. It is the same for other operations too. Some books may suggest that you remember a special rule for taking reciprocals, that the inequality reverses. This rule is ne for numbers of the same sign, for example 2<3 implies that 1 1 > 2 3

However if you stuck to this rule always you would say 2 > 3 implies that 1 1 < 2 3

which is obviously wrong. The correct way to view this is simply to perform divisions, reversing the sign if the division is by a negative. Thus 2<3 and implies 1< 3 2 implies 1 1 < 3 2

3 1 1 implies < . 2 3 2 The moral of this story is that the only operations which can be performed on inequalities safely are the standard operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division (with appropriate reversal of the inequality if necessary). Using any other operation is fraught with peril, and requires justication. 2 > 3 implies 1> 54

Exercises 8.2 Solve the following inequalities. x (a) x + 4 > 7 (b) 4 6 3 r3 > 6 (e) 5x < 20 + x (d) 2 x x 1 x+6 x (h) + (g) 2 4 6 12 1 1 1 (k) >1 (j) x+2 x+3 8.3 Quadratic inequalities

(c) 3 + 4y 2(1 y ) (f) 8 < 3x 2 4 2b 5 b+6 (i) +3 8 12 x 1 (l) > x+1 2

Naturally enough these are inequalities involving a quadratic expression, which can be written in the form ax2 + bx + c > 0 or a comparable expression involving <, or . I will describe what I hope is the easiest method of solving these inequalities precisely why it works may be easier to follow once we have learnt to graph quadratics. Firstly we momentarily ignore the inequality and imagine it as equality. We then solve the quadratic equation, either by factoring or via the quadratic formula. The solutions are called the roots of the equation. Now the solution of the original inequality is either the region between the roots, or the two regions outside the roots. Knowing this, we only have to test a single point from one region to see if it satises the inequality or not. Well discuss why this works in a minute, but for now lets do an example. To solve x2 + 4x + 3 < 0, we rst solve the equation x2 + 4x + 3 = 0. We have done this before (factoring is easy (x + 1)(x + 3) = 0) and the roots are 1 and 3. Now choose a number to test x = 0 is an easy option. At x = 0, a point outside (that is, not between) the two roots the inequality fails. Therefore the solution must be the region between the roots, 3 < x < 1. For our second example well solve x2 + 3x + 1 0. First, replace the inequality by equality. You may recall we have tried to solve this quadratic equation before and we needed to use the quadratic formula. We found 3 5 . x= 2 Once again I will use x = 0 as my test point, and this is outside the two roots. It is easy to conrm that the inequality is true for x = 0, and so it is true for all numbers outside 55

the roots. Also, in this case equality is allowed, and so the roots themselves are part of 5 3+ 5 or x . the solution. Therefore x 3 2 2 A few words now on why it works. Suppose the two roots of the quadratic are a and b, so that the quadratic factors as (x a)(x b). Then for any choice of x bigger than both a and b, we have (x a) and (x b) both positive, and so the quadratic is positive. Similarly, for a choice of x less than than both a and b, we have (x a) and (x b) both negative, and so the quadratic is positive (product of two negatives is positive). That is, anywhere outside the roots the quadratic (x a)(x b) is positive. Anywhere between the roots, however, one of (x a) or (x b) is positive, and the other is negative, and so the quadratic (x a)(x b) is negative. It therefore suces to test one point from a region to determine if that region satises the inequality or not. Exercises 8.3 Solve the following quadratic inequalities. Graph (b) y 2 + 8y + 7 0 (a) x2 + 7x + 12 > 0 (d) 9 x2 > 0 (e) x2 + x 6 > 0 (h) x2 16 (g) 6x2 + x 2 8.4 Absolute value your solutions on the number line. (c) z 2 + 13z + 40 0 (f) 2x2 15x + 25 0 (i) x2 < x + 6

A real number has both a magnitude and a direction (sign). The technical jargon for the size or magnitude of a number is its absolute value or modulus. The notation to represent this size is vertical lines either side of the number, thus | 2| means the absolute value of 2, and |x| means the absolute value of x. In practise we nd the absolute value of a number by throwing away its sign (if it is negative). The formal denition of absolute value is a little dierent. For a variable it is not clear whether it is negative or positive, and so we must treat each case separately. |x| = x if x 0 x if x < 0

This means that for a positive number (or zero) the absolute value or size is equal to itself, and for a negative number the absolute value is minus itself. For example, |2| = 2 and | 2| = (2) = 2. The eect for negative numbers is the same as if we had dropped the negative sign. As you can see, this means that an absolute value is always positive (or zero). 56

In some books you may see an alternative denition, that |x| =

x2 . This is in fact

identical to our denition above, since for positive numbers the squareroot of the square is the number itself, whereas for negative numbers we have a change of sign because squareroots are always taken to be positive. For example, |2| = 22 = 4 = 2 and | 2| = (2)2 = 4 = 2. However I dont believe this denition is as easy to use, or as intuitive. So much for the denition, how are we to interpret or visualise this concept? The most valuable way of viewing the absolute value of a number is as its distance from 0 on the number line. Of course distances are always positive (or zero), so that ts in well. Following through our example, |2| can be interpreted as the distance of 2 from 0, so the answer is 2. Similarly | 2| can be interpreted as the distance of 2 from 0, so the answer is again 2. Continuing in this fashion, the distance between any two numbers can be written as the absolute value of their dierence say, distance from 3 to 5 is |3 5|. Notice it wouldnt matter if I wrote it the other way around (|5 3|) because distances dont have a direction. Exercises 8.4 Find the value of the following expressions involving absolute values. (a) |17| (b) | | (c) |2 3| (d) 3 | 4| (e) |3 | 4|| (f) | x| 8.5 Equations and inequalities involving absolute values

There are generally two approaches to solving equations/inequalities involving absolute values. One is the formal algebraic approach, which is tedious and confusing to most students, yet is rigorous and logical. The other approach is more intuitive and geometric, and allows us to see the solution to simple problems quickly. It is this second approach I wish to develop here. Lets solve the equation |x 2| = 1 by thinking in terms of distances. The term |x 2| can be thought of as meaning the distance between x and 2, and so the equation reads geometrically as the distance from x to 2 equals 1. Draw a number line (or imagine it). Which numbers are a distance 1 away from the number 2? Answers 3 or 1. Well try an inequality the same way. Consider the inequality |x 3| < |x 1|. Reading the equation in terms of distances, it says 57

the distance from x to 1 is greater than the distance from x to 3. Another way of saying this is x is closer to 3 than it is to 1. Draw or imagine a number line again. Any number right of the midpoint is closer to 3 than to 1. Therefore x > 2. Exercises 8.5 1 Solve the following equations involving absolute values. (a) |x| = 6 (d) |x 2| = 4 (g) |x + 1| = x (j) |x + 1| + |x 1| = 4 (b) | x| = 6 (e) |5 x| = 8 (h) |2x| = 9 x (k) |x 2| = |x 4| + 1 (c) | 4x| = 20 (f) |2x 4| = 12 (i) |x + 3| = |x 1| (l) |x 2| + |x + 1| = 3

2 Solve the following inequalities involving absolute values. (a) |x| > 6 (b) | x| > 6 (c) | 4x| < 20 (d) |x 2| 4 (g) |x + 1| > x (j) |x + 1| + |x 1| < 4 (e) |5 x| 8 (h) |2x| 9 x (k) |x 2| |x 4| + 1 (f) |2x 4| > 12 (i) |x + 3| |x 1| (l) |x 2| + |x + 1| 3

58

Lecture 9.
9.1

Arithmetic and geometric sequences and series

Sequences in general

A sequence is an ordered list of numbers, as opposed to a set which is just a collection of numbers whose order does not particularly matter. Thus {1, 4, 3, 5, 2} and {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}

are the same as sets, since the numbers involved are identical, but dierent as sequences because of the dierent order in which the numbers appear. In general there need not be any discernable pattern in the numbers in order to justify the title of sequence, however sequences in which the terms follow a set pattern are the more interesting and useful. Innite sequences are also generally more fun then nite ones! A sequence which follows a set pattern may be dened in several ways. For example 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, ..... is a sequence dened by writing down the rst few terms until the pattern becomes obvious. The series of dots at the end ...... indicates that the sequence extends forever. Alternatively there might be a direct formula for describing the value of each term, for example xn = n2 describes the same sequence as above. As n takes the values 1, 2, 3... the formula computes the rst, second, third ... terms of the sequence. Finally the sequence could be described by an indirect formula, such as xn+1 = xn + 2n + 1 starting from x1 = 1.

Such a formula is called an iterative formula. It expresses the terms of the sequence as a function of the previous terms. In order to nd the 10th term of the sequence the formula must be iterated to nd all the intervening terms. This can be painful if we want to know the 573rd term of the sequence. A direct formula allows us to jump straight to the value of the 573rd term without needing to know any of the other terms. It is not always easy to write down a direct formula for a sequence, even if the pattern is a relatively simple one.

59

Exercises 9.1 1. Find the next three terms of the following sequences, and write down a formula to describe the sequences (if you can). 1 2 1 2 1 9.2 Arithmetic progressions 3 6 8 3 1 5 18 27 5 2 7 3 7 54 64 11 5 8 13 13 17 21

A commonly occuring type of sequence with a simple pattern is the arithmetic sequence or arithmetic progression. In an arithmetic progression each term is obtained from the last by adding a constant number, called the common dierence, d. Thus 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, .... is an A.P. with a common dierence of d = 3. In fact if we know the rst term of the sequence, x1 = a, and we know the common dierence d, the rest of the sequence is easy to nd. As an iterative formula we could write xn+1 = xn + d but simpler still is the direct formula xn = a + (n 1)d. A series is the sum of the terms of a sequence, thus 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19 is an arithmetic sequence while 1 + 4 + 7 + 10 + 13 + 16 + 19 is an arithmetic series. Finding the sum of an arithmetic series can be accomplished by a neat trick. Write the terms of the series down twice, once in its usual order and once in reverse, thus 1 19 + + 4 16 + + 7 13 + + 10 10 + + 13 7 + + 16 4 + + 19 1. + starting from x1 = a,

Now when we pair each number with the one below we see that the pairs all add up to the same value, 20, while the number of pairs is 7. The total is therefore 7 20 = 140, but 60

thats the result of adding up the series twice. Therefore the sum of the series (once) is 140/2 = 70. This process is the basis of the general formula for the sum of an arithmetic series n sn = (a + l) 2 where n is the number of terms to be added, a is the rst term and l = a + (n 1)d is the last term to be added. Exercises 9.2 1. 2. 3. 9.3 Find the sum of the numbers from 1 to 1000. What is the 27th term of the arithmetic sequence 5, 8, 11, 14...? What is the sum of the rst 27 terms? Find the sum of the odd numbers from 1 to 2n+1. Geometric progressions

The geometric sequence or geometric progression is one in which each term is obtained from the last by multiplying by some number, called the common ratio, r. If in addition we know the rst term of the sequence, a, then we can nd any term easily. For example, the geometric progression with rst term a = 1 and common ratio r = 2 is 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, ...... The general formula for any term of a G.P. is xn = arn1 . The ultimate behaviour of a G.P. depends on the value of r. There are a number of cases. Case 1: r > 1 In this case the value of rn1 grows larger and larger, and the sequence grows towards (if a > 0) or (if a < 0). Case 2: r = 1 This results in the rather dull constant sequence, a, a, a, a, ..... Case 3: 1 > r > 0 The value of rn1 shrinks away to nothing as n gets larger, so the sequence gets closer and closer to zero. Case 4: r = 0 Even more dull than r = 1. The sequence goes a, 0, 0, 0, .... This probably shouldnt even be considered a G.P. Case 5: 0 > r > 1 As in Case 3 rn1 shrinks in size, but it alternates in sign as it shrinks. The sequence therefore bounces either side of zero as it shrinks away. Case 6: r = 1 The sequence a, a, a, a, a, a, .... 61

Case 7: r < 1 The value of rn1 grows larger and alternates in sign as n gets larger, so every second term of the sequence is growing towards while every other term grows towards . A geometric series is the sum of a geometric sequence. Just as in the case of an arithmetic series, a neat trick allows us to quickly and easily nd the sum of a geometric series no matter how many terms are involved. Let us write sn for the sum of n terms of the series, thus sn = a + ar + ar2 + ar3 + ..... + arn1 . Multiplying this expression by r and subtracting gives sn = a + ar + ar2 + ar3 + ..... + arn1 rsn = ar + ar2 + ar3 + ..... + arn1 + arn

- (1 r)sn = a arn Rearranging gives us a simple formula for the sum, sn = a(1 rn ) . (1 r)

Note that the formula fails if r = 1 since we would be dividing by zero; but if r = 1 then it is easy to see that sn = na. An interesting and useful consideration is what happens if we add more and more terms of our geometric series. If |r| > 1 (that is, if r > 1 or r < 1) then rn grows very large in size (and alternates if r is negative). However if |r| < 1 (that is, if 1 < r < 1) then rn shrinks away to nothing the bigger we make n. This means that sn gets closer and closer to a/(1 r) as n gets bigger. Under these circumstances we say that we can sum the series to innity, and the result is s = a 1r for 1 < r < 1.

Exercises 9.3 What is the 12th term of the geometric sequence 8, 4, 2, 1...? What is the sum of the rst 12 terms? What is the sum of the entire series (i.e. innitely many terms)? = 1. 2. Prove that 0.9 1.

62

Lecture 10.

Functions and graphs

The preceding lectures have concentrated on algebra and algebraic methods of solving problems. Algebra is extremely important because it is the tool by which we prove, justify or calculate. There are, however, few people who gain insight through algebra. More often it is through geometry - the representation of mathematical ideas pictorially - that we see what is true and what is not. The subsequent proof may require an algebraic approach, and this may prove to be illuminating, but the initial spark is usually a geometric one. 10.1 The cartesian plane

We have already found it useful to imagine the real numbers pictorially by viewing them as points on the number line. The number line is useful for displaying information about a single variable, as we did when we solved inequalities, however most often we will be interested in displaying information about two variables, and their relationship to each other. To do this we will need two number lines. This could be done simply by drawing two copies of the numberline; one for each variable. Thus we could represent x = 2 and y = 3 by

but this is a little awkward. Instead we draw two copies of the number line, crossing each other at rightangles at the number 0. To represent x = 2 and y = 3 we nd the point directly above the 2 on the horizontal number line and to the right of the 3 on the vertical number line.

By utilising the entire plane in this way, the information x = 2 and y = 3 can be represented by a single point. Whenever this method is used for labelling points it is referred to as the cartesian plane. Now we come to some of the terminology and notation used for the cartesian plane. The number lines themselves are referred to as the axes (plural of axis), and the point 63

where they cross each other is known as the origin. Points in the cartesian plane are usually labelled by a capital letter, and the numbers describing its position relative to the axes are called its coordinates. The coordinates are usually written as an ordered pair of numbers, in parentheses, with the coordinate of the horizontal axis rst, followed by the coordinate of the vertical axis. Thus the point x = 2 and y = 3 would be written as (2, 3). The jargon for the rst coordinate is the absissca and for the second coordinate is the ordinate. Since most of the time the variables we use will be named x and y , it is more common to hear the absissca referred to as the x-coordinate or x-value, and the ordinate referred to as the y -coordinate or y -value. There are a few simple quantities which can be easily calculated from the coordinates of points in the cartesian plane. Distance between two points in the cartesian plane Given any two points in the plane a simple application of Pythagoras Theorem allows us to calculate the distance between them. If we label the two points P and Q, and their coordinates (x1 , y1 ) and (x2 , y2 ) respectively, then we can produce a right-angled triangle whose hypotenuse is the line joining P and Q, as shown below.

Now the length of the horizontal side of the triangle is |x1 x2 | and the length of the vertical side of the triangle is |y1 y2 |, and so by Pythagoras Theorem the distance from P to Q is (x1 x2 )2 + (y1 y2 )2 . Notice that we have dropped the absolute value signs from the formula. Since we squaring the numbers (x1 x2 ) and (y1 y2 ) anyway, the absolute value signs are important. This also means that it does not matter which point you consider to be rst point and which is the second, the distance turns out the same. For example, calculate the distance from the point P (1, 3) to Q(3, 0). By distance formula this is (1 (3))2 + (3 0)2 = 42 + (3)2 = 16 + 9 = 25 = 5. 64 are not the the

If we use the points in the reverse order we get (3 1)2 + (0 (3))2 = so the order of the points did not matter. Midpoint between two points in the cartesian plane Given two points P (x1 , y1 ) and Q(x2 , y2 ) in the cartesian plane, the point which lies exactly halfway between these two is simply the point whose x and y coordinates are halfway between those of P and Q. Therefore we just average the coordinates of P and Q. (4)2 + 32 = 16 + 9 = 25 = 5

The midpoint between P and Q is therefore the point x1 + x2 y1 + y2 , . 2 2 So, for example, the midpoint between (1, 3) and (3, 0) is 1 + (3) 3 + 0 , 2 2 Exercises 10.1 For each of the following pairs of points, nd their midpoint and the distance between them. (a) (1,2) and (4,6) (b) (2,-3) and (-4,-1) (c) (3,7) and (3,-2) 10.2 What is a function? = (1, 3 ). 2

A point in the cartesian plane is described by an ordered pair of numbers, the abscissa (x-value) and the ordinate (y -value). You may consider this point as associating the two 65

numbers with each other. For example, if the x-value represents temperature in o F and the y -value is temperature in o C , then the point (32, 0) would indicate the association between these dierent temperature scales at the freezing point of water. Similarly the point (212, 100) would give the relationship at the boiling point of water, and it would be possible to describe all the points relating temperature in Fahrenheit to temperature in Celcius. This gives us an intuitive idea of what a function is. It is a means of associating pairs of numbers through some relationship. Another feature of the intuitive idea of a function is that of dependence. We usually consider that the y -value is dependent on the x-value, meaning that if the x-value is known then the y -value can be determined according to some rule. This brings us to our denition of a function. A function is a rule associating to each x-value exactly one y -value. Now we may have to clarify and elaborate this denition somewhat, but it is a good starting point. If we drop the idea that each x-value can only be associated with one y -value, then we get what is called a relation. A relation is a rule which associates x-values with y -values. These denitions are a little vague because they do not describe what constitutes a rule. Most commonly the rule takes the form of a formula, for example y = 3x2 2x + 7. This is clearly a function. Given any x-value we can use the formula to calculate the associated y -value. Since y is the subject of the formula it is dependent on x, and x is described as the independent variable. The rule, however, may be more complicated, involving several dierent formulae and conditional statements describing when each is to be applied. We have already seen a function described in just this way the absolute value function. Another example is, y= x2 if x > 0 13 if x = 0 3x + 2 if x < 0.

Although more complicated, we can see each value of x satises only one of the conditional criteria, and so determines only one value of y . Now we could in principle extend this idea of creating a rule through a sequence of dierent cases. Taken to its illogical conclusion, 66

a rule could in principle consist of a list of all the possible dierent x-values, and a list of all the associated y -values. Such a thing would then be a function, though not the sort of function which is ever likely to be useful. An example of a formula without a subject is x2 + y 2 = 25. In this case we cant identify one variable as being dependent on the other. Nevertheless this equation does determine some points in the cartesian plane. For example the points (0,5), (3,4) and (-3,4) all satisfy the equation. However the points (3,-4) and (-3,-4) also work, so for x = 3 and x = 3 there are two values of y satisfying the equation. This means that a given value of x does not determine exactly one value of y , so the equation is a relation, not a function. The domain of a function is the set of all x-values for which the function is dened, while the range is the set of all y -values which can result from the function. For example, for the function f (x) = 9 x2 the domain is x [3, 3], since any value outside this range results in the squareroot of a negative number. The range is y [0, 3]. 10.3 Graphs

A function is a rule which associates y -values with x-values to create ordered pairs of numbers. When we plot these ordered pairs on the cartesian plane we create the graph of the function. For most functions which we will encounter the function is given by a single formula, and in general the graph of the function will be a continuous, smooth curve of points in the cartesian plane. However we should not assume that all functions give rise to smooth continuous curves. Some graphs may have sharp corners, and others may be made up of several pieces which are not joined to each other. We will be continually developing methods to help in drawing the graphs of functions, and in this section we will only consider the most primitive of methods. The most obvious way of graphing a function is simply to start nding the ordered pairs dened by the function, and plotting them one by one. For example, consider the function 5(x 32) . y= 9 We could simply start choosing some values for x and calculate the corresponding values for y . We could start by putting x = 32 and nding that y = 0, so we plot the point 67

(32, 0). Then we could try x = 100 and nd y 37.8, and so plot (100, 37.8). Finally we might try x = 212 and nd that y = 100, and so plot (212, 100). We would end up with the graph below.

Now we see the inherent weakness of this method. When its all said and done, we only have three points on the graph. Now they appear to lie along a straight line, so perhaps the entire graph is just a straight line, but we cant be sure. We could test this hypothesis by plotting some more points. Try x = 149 and nd y = 65, and the point (149, 65) does appear to lie along the same straight line. Therefore it seems reasonable to extrapolate from these four points to conclude that the graph is a straight line.

Essentially this method requires that we plot enough points to detect a pattern of some sort, and then extend this pattern (extrapolation) to draw the entire graph. This extension procedure is an assumption, and on more complicated examples may mislead you. For this reason I never recommend that you apply this method in isolation, and we will develop other methods to be used in conjunction with plotting points to avoid the common traps. Eventually I hope you will not need to plot any individual points in order 68

to graph functions, but for the moment, just to get a feel for functions and graphs, this is our only method. A more complicated example would be to graph the function y = x3 x. In order to plot some points it may be useful to draw up a table of x-value along with their associated y -values.

Plotting these points we nd

If you now tried to extrapolate these points to obtain the entire graph you may be misled into believing the graph is at between -1 and 1, whereas in fact the graph looks like

69

If you are in doubt about what the graph is doing in some region, try plotting a few 3 more points in the doubtful area. In the example above plotting x = 1 2 , y = 8 and 3 x = 1 2 , y = 8 would help enormously in nding the correct shape of the graph. Exercises 10.3 Use graph paper to plot some points on the graphs of the following functions or relations. Attempt to extrapolate to obtain a complete graph of the function. What is the domain and range of each function? 1 (a) y = 2x (b) y = x2 (c) y = 16 x2 (d) y = x x 3 2 (h) y 2 = x3 + x (e) y = x (f) y = x + 4x 21 (g) y = 2 x +1

70

Lecture 11.

Graphing straight lines and parabolas

In the last lecture we investigated graphing functions by plotting points and extrapolating between them. This method is primitive but eective in many circumstances, although it can sometimes be misleading if used without adequate caution. A more complete approach to graphing, or curve sketching, involves knowing the graphs of standard functions by heart, and using this information to predict the graphs of more complicated functions. This lecture begins the process of developing a repetoire of graphs of common curves, starting with straight lines and parabolas. 11.1 The straight line

We have already noted that an expression of the form ax + b, where x is a variable and a and b are constants, is called a linear expression. This is because the graph of the expression y = ax + b is a straight line. In order to graph this function we could plot some points, and the easiest point to plot is when x = 0 then y = b. Thus the graph of y = ax + b cuts across the y -axis at height b. This is called the y -intercept of the curve, so the number b has an immediate meaning on the graph of the function. We wish to establish a meaning for the number a. We could plot the points corresponding to x = 1, 2, 3 etc, and we would nd y = a + b, 2a + b, 3a + b etc.

So we see that the number a is the amount by which y changes whenever x changes by the amount 1. This means that the number a determines the steepness of the graph. This quantity is usually referred to as the gradient or slope of the line, and is usually represented by the symbol m rather than a. (Why you would choose the letter m I do not know!) The gradient of the line may be calculated from any two points on the line via the formula 71

m=

y 2 y1 rise = . run x2 x1

Now the straight line y = mx + b is easy to graph since it has y -intercept b and gradient m. Note that if m = 0 then the line is horizontal (y = b) and that if m is negative then y is decreasing from left to right.

Given any two points there is only one straight line which goes through these points, and this line can be found by determining the values of m and b. For example to nd the equation of the line through the points (1, 3) and (2, 5) we could substitute these values into the equation y = mx + b, thus 3=m+b 5 = 2m + b. 72

We can now solve these equations, either by elimination or substitution. Lets eliminate b by subtracting the rst equation from the second. This gives m = 2. Substituting this value back shows b = 1. Thus the equation of the line through the two points is y = 2x + 1. Another approach to this problem is to use the formula above to nd the gradient of the line, m= y2 y1 53 = 2. = x2 x1 21

Notice that it doesnt matter in which order we use the points, since swapping the order changes the sign of the numerator and the denominator, and so the ratio is unchanged. Now since we know m = 2 the equation of the line must be y = 2x + b and we can substitute either point into the equation to nd b. Substituting the point (2, 5) gives 5=22+b and so we nd b = 1, and the line is y = 2x + 1. Finally we could streamline this process even further by noting that if (x1 , y1 ) is any point on the line, then b = y1 mx1 and so the equation of the line can be written as y = mx + b y = mx + (y1 mx1 ) (y y1 ) = m(x x1 ). With this formula we can do the example again. As before we can nd that m = 2, and using either point (say (1, 3) this time), we instantly get the equation of the line (y 3) = 2(x 1). Of course this can be rearranged to be y = 2x + 1, as we had before. In summary then, there are three formulae you should know for straight lines. y = mx + b gradient-intercept form

point-gradient form and (y y1 ) = m(x x1 ) rise y 2 y1 m= = the gradient. run x2 x1 73

There is an added complication with these forms of a straight line. We cannot describe a vertical line using an equation involving the gradient (why not?). However the equation of a vertical line is quite simple, x = c where c is the x-intercept. If you wish to use a general equation which can incorporate all straight lines, including vertical lines, then it can easily be done, but you cant make y the subject of the equation. The general form of a straight line is ax + by + c = 0. (Note that a vertical line x = c is not a function, it is a relation, since there are many values of y for the one value of x.) Exercise 11.1 1 Find the equation of each of the following straight lines and graph them. (a) The line with slope 2 cutting the y -axis at 3. (b) (c) The line with slope -1 through the point (2, 5). The line through the two points (1, 1) and (3, 5).

(d) The line through the points (2, 7) and (5, 7). (e) The line through the points (2, 7) and (2, 6). 2 Solve the equations y = 2x + 1 and y = 3x 1 simultaneously, and graph the two lines on the same graph. At which point do the two lines intersect? 11.2 Parabolas

The simplest of mathematical expressions, linear expressions, give rise to straight line graphs. The next simplest of expressions is the quadratic, and it gives rise to parabolic graphs. The parabola is a very famous shape, one of a family of shapes known as conic sections since it can be obtained by slicing through a cone at an angle. The parabola, like all conic sections, appears frequently in nature. For example the path of an object thrown through the air is parabolic. It is also a shape rich in geometrical properties which can be exploited. For example, the curved reective dish in torches or headlights is parabolic since this shape reects light into parallel beams, focussing it in the forward direction. For the moment we will not be concerned with the geometric properties of the parabola, but will simply focus on graphing quadratic functions. Now might be a convenient time to introduce another notation. In order to indicate that the y variable is a function of x, the notation f (x) is often used synonymously with y . Thus if we write y = ax2 + bx + c or 74 f (x) = ax2 + bx + c

we mean the same thing. The rst thing to notice when graphing a quadratic is the sign of its leading coecient. (Recall the leading coecient is the number in front of the highest power of x. For a quadratic, this is the coecient of x2 .) If the leading coecient is positive the graph is an up-the-right-way parabola, and if its negative the graph is an upside-down parabola.

The next features you can easily nd are the roots of the quadratic, and its axis of symmetry. The roots of any expression are the points where it equals zero, so these are the x-intercepts on the graph. For a quadratic the roots can be found by factoring, or by using the quadratic formula. However recall that a quadratic may have no real roots, in which case the graph does not cross the x-axis. A graph of a quadratic always has a vertical axis of symmetry along the line x = b/(2a). This is easy to remember because it is half-way between the roots (if it has any) and in any case can be obtained just by dropping the squareroot term from the quadratic formula. The point on the parabola along this axis of symmetry is called the vertex, and is the maximum (a < 0) or minimum (a > 0) value the function takes. This value can be found by evaluating the function at x = b/(2a). Finally you can plot the y -intercept, which is c, obtained by putting x=0.

75

As an example, lets graph f (x) = x2 x 2. Observe that the leading coecient is positive, so this is an up-the-right-way parabola. It factors to be f (x) = (x 2)(x + 1), so its roots are at x = 2 and x = 1. The axis of symmetry is halfway between these roots, at 1 1 1 x= 1 2 , and at that point f (x) attains its minimum value, which is f ( 2 ) = ( 2 2)( 2 + 1) = 9 4 . The y -intercept is at 2. With this information we draw the graph.

Notice now that we have drawn the graph how easy it is to solve the quadratic inequality x2 x 2 < 0. On the graph this represents the region where the graph dips below the x-axis, and this is clearly between the roots, since it is an up-the-right-way parabola. Exercises 11.2 Sketch the graphs of the following quadratics. (a) y = (x 1)(x 3) (b) f (x) = x(x +4) (c) y = x2 +3x +1 (d) f (x) = x2 + x +1 2 Using your sketches from question 1 solve the following quadratic inequalities. (a) (x 1)(x 3) 0 (b) x(x + 4) < 0 (c) x2 + 3x + 1 > 0 (d) x2 + x + 1 0 1

76

Lecture 12.
12.1

Graphing higher order polynomials, circles, ellipses,hyperbolae

Higher order polynomials

Having considered the graphs of linear and quadratic functions it is natural (at least to a mathematician) to progress to cubic, quartic and higher order polynomials. In fact many of the ideas we used to sketch quadratics still apply, but as so often happens there are added complications, some of which we are not yet ready to deal with. Still we can go a long way towards sketching any polynomial with a few simple rules. The rst thing we need to consider is what is the right-way-up for higher order polynomials. Once again we shall say that the curve is the right-way-up if the leading coecient is positive, and it is upside-down if the leading coecient is negative. The overall behaviour for large values (positive or negative) of x is completely determined by the leading term; that is, the term involving the largest power of x. This is because for large values of x the leading term is so much bigger than all the other terms combined that they have little inuence on the function. For example, in the cubic f (x) = x3 + 10x2 + 25x + 357 if we consider the size of each term for x = 100 say, we nd that the terms are respectively 1000000, 1000, 2500 and 357. The overall answer is 1003857, so the leading term totally dominates the contributions of the other terms. This will always be the case, provided we take a large enough value of x. The behaviour splits into two classes, according to whether the highest power of x is odd or even. For odd powers n of x, when x is large and positive, xn is extremely large and positive; and when x is large and negative, xn is extremely large and negative. For even powers n of x, when x is large (either positive or negative) then xn is extremely large and positive. From this we can sketch the two possibilities for large values of x, and for up-the right-way polynomials.

77

If the polynomial is upside-down these sketches are inverted.

Getting this behaviour correct sets the shape of the whole graph. Now we just plot the roots of the polynomial, and the x-intercept, as we did for the quadratic. The latter is easily found since it is just the constant term (put x = 0 into the equation). Finding the roots is, however, a dicult job in general. We need to be able to factorise the ploynomial to nd the roots. For example, here are the graphs of y = x(x 1)(x + 2) and y = (4 x2 )(x2 + x).

Take note of the number of wiggles each function has. Linear functions have no wiggless, quadratics have one, cubics have two and quartics have three. In general the numbers of wiggles on a polynomial graph is one less than the degree (the highest power of x) of the polynomial. We will have to discuss adjustments to this rule later, but it will remain true provided we are prepared to double count wiggless which occur at the same spot, just as we double count repeated roots to an equation. A word of warning! Unlike the parabola, higher order polynomials do not in general have any symmetry. We therefore cannot assume that the maximum and minimum values of the polynomial occur midway between adjacent roots. We will have to wait for calculus before we can determine these values exactly. Exercises 12.1 1 Sketch the graphs of the following polynomials. 78

(a) y = (x 1)(x 3)(x + 2) (b) f (x) = x(x + 5)(x 1)(3 x) (c) p(x) = x2 (x 1) (d) y = 4x x3 (e) q (x) = x3 + 3x2 x 3 (f) f (x) = x4 + 2x3 x2 2x 12.2 Circles

A circle is the set of all points which are equidistant from a given point; the centre. So to specify a circle completely we only need to know the position of its centre, and its radius. Lets say the centre of the circle is to be the point (x0 , y0 ) and the radius is to be r. Then the point (x, y ) is on the circumference of the circle if and only if its distance to the centre equals r.

That is, using the distance formula, (x x0 )2 + (y y0 )2 = r. Squaring both sides gives us the standard form of the equation of a circle. (x x0 )2 + (y y0 )2 = r2 Given an equation in this form it is an easy task to graph it. For example the equation (x 3)2 + (y + 1)2 = 25 is a circle, centred at the point (3, 1) (since (y + 1) = (y (1))) with radius 5.

Notice that this is a relation, not a function, since vertical lines through the graph cut it at two points. 79

If the equation of the circle is given in standard form it is easy to graph, but it could arise in non-standard form, in which case it needs to be rearranged into standard form by completing the square. For example, the equation 2x2 + 12x + 2y 2 8y = 24 is a circle. In order to graph it we rearrange it into standard form, by dividing by 2, and grouping terms involving x and y together. Thus (x2 + 6x) + (y 2 4y ) = 12. Now to complete the square on the x we need to add (6/2)2 = 9 to both sides, and to complete the square on y we add (4/2)2 = 4 to both sides. This gives (x2 + 6x + 9) + (y 2 4y + 4) = 12 + 9 + 4 (x + 3)2 + (y 2)2 = 25. So this is a circle centred at (3, 2) with radius 5. Exercises 12.2 1 2 State the centre and radius of the following circles, and hence sketch their graphs. (a) x2 + y 2 = 4 (b) (x 2)2 + (y + 5)2 =
1 4

(c) x2 + (y + 1)2 = 3

Write the equation of the circle x2 + 2x + y 2 10y + 10 = 0 in standard form, and hence draw its graph. Ellipses

12.3

The ellipse (or oval) is another famous shape among the family known as conic sections. It arises when a cone or a cylinder is cut with an inclined plane. In nature its most famous role is as the path traced out by planets orbiting the sun. Like all conic sections it is rich in geometrical properties which we wont consider here at this time. Perhaps you have seen one of these properties, however. If you pin the two ends of a piece of string to the page, hook a pencil in the string, pull it tight and draw, then you will trace out the shape of an ellipse. What this means is that the sum of the distances from the pencil tip to the pins is always the same, since it equals the length of the string. From this property, and the distance formula, it is possible to derive the equation of the ellipse, however we shant bother since it is an uninspiring and painful piece of algebra. 80

What we will say about the equation of an ellipse is that it is very similar to that of a circle. Indeed an ellipse itself looks like a attened circle. If we take the equation of a circle, centred at the origin and radius r, x2 + y 2 = r2 we can divide both sides by r2 , and write this as x r
2

y r

= 1.

Now if we think of an ellipse as being a squished circle, with dierent radii in each direction; say radius a in the x-direction and radius b in the y -direction; then we have the equation of an ellipse. x a
2

y b

= 1.

The numbers a and b are not called radii anymore, their correct names are the major and minor semi-axes, depending on which is bigger. However the analogy to radius is a good one. Even the area of an ellipse (ab) is similar in form to the area of a circle (r2 ). The semi-axes tell us the distance from the centre to the ellipse in each direction.

If the ellipse is to be centred at the point (x0 , y0 ) then the equation simply becomes x x0 a
2

y y0 b

= 1.

The points which are furthest from and closest to the centre are called the vertices. These are (x0 a, y0 ) and (x0 , y0 b). So, to plot the ellipse x1 3
2

y+2 4

=1

we simply nd the centre, (1, 2), and the vertices (2, 2), (4, 2), (1, 2) and (1, 6). Now connect these with a squashed circle and youre done. 81

If an ellipse is given in non-standard form we need to put it into standard form by completing the square. For example, the equation 2x2 + y 2 4x + 2y + 1 = 0 is an ellipse. Writing this as 2(x2 2x) + (y 2 + 2y ) = 1 2(x2 2x + 1) + (y 2 + 2y + 1) = 1 + 2 + 1 2(x 1)2 + (y + 1)2 = 2 (x 1) +
2

y+1 2

=1 2. It is therefore

we see that it is centred at the point (1, 1) and has a = 1 and b = elongated in the y -direction.

Exercises 12.3 1 State the centre and the semi-minor axes of the following ellipses. Hence sketch their graphs. 2 2 2 2 x y x1 y+2 (y 1)2 x2 (a) + =1 + = 1 (b) + = 1 (c) 3 2 3 4 3 4 82

Write the equation of the ellipse 9x2 + 36x + 4y 2 8y + 4 = 0 in standard form, and hence draw its graph.

12.4

Hyperbolae

This is the last of that famous family of curves, the conic sections, and it too can be obtained by cutting across a cone (an innite cone in both directions, that is!) with a plane. The most common form in which we are likely to meet an hyperbola is xy = c where c is a constant. This can also be arranged with y (or x) as the subject y= c x or x = c . y

This equation has the form of an inverse proportionality law which occurs occasionally in science. For example, Boyles Law relating the pressure and volume of a gas. To graph the hyperbola the most interesting behaviour happens near x = 0 or y = 0. Well consider the case of an up-the-right-way hyperbola, with c > 0. Imagine x very close to zero, but still positive. Then y = c/x will be very large, and positive. So as x gets close to zero from the positive side y zooms up towards innity. The function does not have a value at x = 0 because you cant divide by zero. For x close to zero but negative the function is very large, but negative. So as x gets close to zero from the negative side y zooms down towards minus innity. Similar reasoning can be applied to the case where y is close to zero. The arguments are the same for an upside-down hyperbola (c < 0), except that all the signs are reversed. We can therefore draw a rough sketch of the hyperbola.

In fact the dotted lines on the rough sketches are really quite accurate. About all we need is to plot one point on each branch of the hyperbola, just to pin it down. The obvious point to plot is when |x| = |y |. So the complete graph of the hyperbola xy = c is 83

Exercises 12.4 1 Sketch the graphs of the following hyperbolae. 5 1 (a) xy = 1 (b) y = (c) y = x x+1

84

Lecture 13. Curve sketching

In the preceding lectures we examined a number of commonly occuring functions and relations and saw how to sketch their graphs. The techniques used there were often specic to the function in question, though sometimes we applied quite general principles to the problem. This lecture concentrates on general principles which are applicable to the sketching of any graph. The aim of this section is that using the ideas here you should be able to quickly draw a rough sketch of virtually any function. 13.1 The translation principle

The translation principle says that If a new function is created by translating the graph of an old function by an amount (x0 , y0 ) then the equation of the new function is the same as that of the old function with (x, y ) replaced by (x x0 , y y0 ) throughout. This sounds complicated, but it isnt really. In fact weve already seen this idea at work. For example, a straight line of slope 2 through the origin has equation y = 2x. If we translate the line so that it passes through the point (3, 5) its equation becomes (y 5) = 2(x 3); (replace x by (x 3) and y by (y 5)). This is the idea behind the point-gradient form of a straight line. Another example we have already seen is that of a circle. A circle radius 1 centred at the origin has equation x2 + y 2 = 1. If we move the circle to be centred at the point (2, 3) the equation becomes (x + 2)2 + (y 3)2 = 1. (Note that x is replaced by (x 2) = (x + 2).) So far we have seen examples of functions we could probably have graphed easily by other means. Now consider a more dicult example, y= x . x+1 85

This does not appear to be any of the functions we are familiar with. Lets begin by doing nothing to the numerator. y= A little rearranging gets us 1 (x + 1) 1 =1 . x+1 x+1 (y 1) =

1 . x+1 Now this is just the equation of an (upside-down) hyperbola (y = 1/x) with (x + 1) taking the place of x and (y 1) in place of y . Therefore the graph of this function is just an upside-down hyperbola centred about the point (1, 1).
6

-5

-4

-3

-2

-1 -2

-4

Exercises 13.1 The parabola y = x2 is translated so that its vertex is at (2, 1). Sketch the new parabola and write down its equation. 2 Draw the graph of y = |x|. Using the translation principle deduce the graphs of y = |x + 2| and y = |x| + 2. 1 13.2 Asymptotic behaviour

The asymptotic behaviour of a function is the behaviour as one of the variables grows large. In some instances we can completely determine the graph of a function from its asymptotics; for example, the hyperbola from last lecture. When graphing any curve at all one of the rst considerations should be what happens for large (positive and negative) values of x?. The jargon for this is as x tends to innity and as x tends to minus innity; and these are written symbolically as x and x . Lets continue with the example y = x/(x + 1). Consider what happens as x . The ratio of x to x + 1 becomes very close to 1, although it is always slightly less than 1. We can write this as y 1 , which reads y 86

tends to 1 from below. If this is dicult to see at rst, try a sequence of values for x getting larger, say x = 10, 100, 1000....., and see what happens to y . In a similar way we can argue that as x then y 1+ (y tends to 1 from above). Once again, if in doubt, try putting x = 10, 100, 1000.... So far we have considered x . What about y ? A common way this arises is if the formula for the function indicates division by zero. Of course at a point where divison by zero occurs the function is not dened, but near such a point the function will be dened, and division by a number near zero typically (but not always) results in answers near . The most crucial thing to decide is whether the trend is towards + or . Lets continue with the example y = x/(x + 1). At the point x = 1 we have division by zero and so the function is not dened. However as we approach x = 1 from above (x 1+ ) the value of y is very large and negative (y ). Again, if unsure, you could try x = 0.9, 0.99, 0.999... and observe the trend. Another way is to try some dodgy arithmetic y= 1+ 1+ = . 1+ + 1 0+

That is, the numerator is negative and the denominator is positive zero (a number very close to zero but positive), so the result is negative but large. In a similar way as we approach x = 1 from below (x 1 ) we get y= 1 1 . = 1 + 1 0

That is, the numerator is negative and the denominator is negative zero (a number very close to zero but negative), so the result is positive but large. Piecing this information together on a graph gives
6

-5

-4

-3

-2

-1 -2

-4

from which it is easy to interpolate to obtain the full graph. 87

Lets try a more complicated example! y= 2x2 + 1 x2 x 2

First lets consider x . In this case the highest power of x dominates all other terms, top and bottom, so we can write y= 2x2 + 1 2x2 = 2 as x . x2 x 2 x2

In fact, with a little more care we could see that y 2+ , since the numerator is a little more than twice the denominator. Perhaps dividing the top and bottom by x2 makes this a little clearer. y= In a similar fashion y= 2 + 1/x2 2x2 + 1 = 2 x2 x 2 1 1/x 2/x2 as x . 2x2 + 1 2 + 1/x2 = 2+ x2 x 2 1 1/x 2/x2 as x .

We should now look for any potential asymptotes caused by a division by zero. Since the denominator factors, x2 x 2 = (x + 1)(x 2), divisions by zero arise at x = 1 or x = 2. We must consider what happens to the function near these points. As x 2 ,
+

9 2.(2+ )2 + 1 y + + (2 + 1)(2 2) 3.0+ y 9 2.(2 )2 + 1 (2 + 1)(2 2) 3.0 3 2.(1+ )2 + 1 + + + (1 + 1)(1 2) 0 .(3) 3 2.(1 )2 + 1 (1 + 1)(1 2) 0 .(3)

As x 2 ,

As x 1+ ,

As x 1 ,

Plotting this information on a graph gives us 88

-4

-2 -2

-4

Since elsewhere we expect the graph to be a smoothly owing curve, we can join these pieces together in the obvious way with condence.
6

-4

-2 -2

-4

Note that the left-most piece of the graph must necessarily drop below the asymptote y = 2, and therefore there is a dip (local minimum) in this section of the graph. Finding its exact location will have to wait for calculus, but we know it is there simply by examining the asymptotic behaviour. Exercises 13.2 1 2 3 By considering the asymptotic behaviour, sketch the graph of y = 1/x2 . Use the translation principle, and your answer to 1, to sketch y = 1/(x + 1)2 .

By examining the asymptotic behaviour, sketch the graphs of 1 x x2 (a) 2 (b) 2 (c) 2 x +1 x +1 x +1 4 By examining the asymptotic behaviour, sketch the graphs of x x2 1 (b) 2 (c) 2 (a) 2 x 1 x 1 x 1 5 By examining the asymptotic behaviour, sketch the graph of y = x + 89

1 . x

 13.3

Graphing reciprocal functions

An example where the ideas of the previous section are particularly easy to apply is when we desire to graph the reciprocal of a familiar function. For example, consider graphing 1 . 2 x + 4x + 3 Now the denominator here is a parabola, with roots at -1 and -3. This is easily graphed.
8

-5

-4

-3

-2

-1

From this easy graph, the appropriate asymptotic behaviour of the reciprocal is easy to determine. As x , y 0+ As x 3 , As x 3+ , As x 1 , As x 1+ , As x , y y y y y 0+

These can be drawn directly onto the graph, thus

4

-5

-4

-3

-2

-1 -2

-4

90

Exercises 13.3 1 By considering graph of the denominator, sketch the graphs of 1 1 1 1 (a) y = 2 (c) y = (b) y = 2 (d) y = x x 1 |x| 2 1 x2

91

Exam 2001
Question 1 (a) (i) Find the prime factorisations of 36 and 96. (ii) What is the lowest common multiple (LCM) of 36 and 96? (iii) What is the greatest common divisor (GCD) of 36 and 96? (b) (i) Write 96 as a surd in its lowest form. (ii) Simplify 3 27 2 108 12 3 (iii) Rationalise the denominator of . 3+1 (iv) The size of a television screen is reported as the diagonal distance across the screen. For a screen 25 cm wide and 20 cm high, what would be the screen size to the nearest centimetre? (c) (i) What (base 10) number is represented in base 5 by 43215 ? (ii) How would the (base 10) number 78 be represented in base 3? 7 as a fraction in its lowest form. (d) Express 0.6 (e) Express 0.01234567 (i) correct to 5 decimal places (ii) in scientic notation using 5 signicant gures (f) Find the exact values (i.e. using surds) of 5 (i) 8 6 (ii) ( 3)3 (g) If i2 = 1 simplify (i) (3 + 2i)(4 5i) 2 (ii) 3+i [25 marks] Number Systems

92

Question 2

[25 marks] Basic Algebra (a2 )3 b1 c (a) Simplify 3 2 2 a b a c (b) Expand and simplify the following (i) (2x y )(2x + y ) (ii) (x 3y )(2 (x + y )) (iii) (3x y )2 (iv) (x 2)4 (c) Fully factorise the following (i) x3 + 5x2 36x (ii) 6x2 + 5x 4

(iii) 6xy 15x + 2y 5 (iv) x6 y 6 x 2x 1 (d) Simplify + 2 . x+1 x 1 (e) (i) Sum the odd numbers less than 100. 1 1 1 1 (ii) Express 1 + + + + as a fraction in its lowest form. 3 9 27 81 1 1 1 1 + + ....... as a fraction in its lowest form. (iii) Express 1 + + + 3 9 27 81

93

Question 3 (a) Solve

[25 marks]

Solving Equations

x+3 x+5 = 1. 5 3 (b) Show that x+1 x+3 + =5 x+2 x+4 can be arranged to form a quadratic equation. Hence solve. (c) (i) Find the distance between the points (4, 1) and (2, 0.5). (ii) What is the midpoint between the points (4, 1) and (2, 0.5)? (iii) What is the equation of the line joining the points (4, 1) and (2, 0.5)? (d) (i) On the same axes, graph the straight lines y = 1 x and x + 4y = 0. (ii) Using the method of elimination, or otherwise, nd the point of intersection of these lines. (e) 1 (i) Graph y = x2 2x 6 showing clearly the roots, axis of symmetry, vertex and 2 y -intercept. (ii) By completing the square, on the same axes graph x2 4x + y 2 + 6y 12 = 0. (iii) Using the method of substitution, or otherwise, nd the points of intersection of the line and the circle.

94

Question 4

[25 marks]

Inequalities and Graphing

(a) Indicate the set of numbers which are less than -1 or greater than or equal to 2 (i) graphically on a number line (ii) using interval notation. (b) Solve 3 4x 2(1 x) (c) (i) Solve 3x2 + 7x + 4 = 0 (ii) (iii) (iv) (v) (d) (i) Solve |x + 2| + |x| = 4 (ii) Solve |x + 2| + |x| < 4 (e) (i) Sketch y = (ii) Solve (f) 1 < 1. x2 1 x2 Draw a rough sketch of y = 3x2 + 7x + 4 Solve 3x2 + 7x + 4 > 0 Draw a rough sketch of y = 3x3 + 7x2 + 4x Solve 3x3 + 7x2 + 4x > 0

(i) Sketch the graph of y = x3 x. 1 . (i) Sketch the graph of y = 3 x x

95

Solutions to exercises
Solutions Lecture 1 Exercise 1.1 1 2 3 LCM (144, 196) = 24 32 72 LCM (144, 200) = 24 32 52 LCM (144, 275) = 24 32 52 11 GCD(144, 196) = 22 GCD(144, 200) = 23 GCD(144, 275) = 1 2,3,5,7,11,13,17,19,23,29,31,37,41,43,47,53,59,61,67,71,73,79,83,89,97 Decompose the following numbers into their prime factors. (a) 24 32 (b) 22 72 (c) 23 52 (d) 52 11

LCM (196, 200) = 23 52 72 GCD(196, 200) = 22 LCM (196, 275) = 22 52 72 11 GCD(196, 275) = 1 LCM (200, 275) = 23 52 11 GCD(200, 275) = 52 4 LCM (144, 196) = 24 32 72 = 7056 Exercises 1.2 (a) 2 (b) 35 (c) 2 (d) 5/7 (e) 1 (f) 4 (g) 105 (h) 15

Solutions Lecture 2 Exercises 2.1 1 2 3 4 (a) 1/5 (b) 1/9 (c) 3/17 (d) 3/7 (e) 3/4 (b) 18 (c) 58 (d) 63 (a) 5 3 7 11 17 1 3 10 (a) 2 3 (b) 3 7 (c) 3 11 (d) 6 10 17 Add, subtract, multiply and divide each of the following pairs of fractions. 1 1 3 1 6 14 55 125 15 (a) 5 (b) 29 (c) 95 6, 6, 6, 2 35 , 35 , 35 , 15 36 , 36 , 108 , 4

Exercises 2.2 1 2 3 (a) 5 (b) 13 (c) 41 (a) 5 (b) 40 (c) 2 502 + 152 52m

96

Exercises 2.3 1 2 3 4 5 6 (a) (e) (a) 3 3 (a) 12 (a) 7 3 (c) 5 3 (d) 6 3 (e) 5 5 (f) 8 3 (g) 2 3 2 (h) 4 3 3 (c) 63 (d) 3 81 (c) 3 (d) 5 3 (e) 7 2 (f) 3 (g) (x 1) x (a) 3 (b) 45 (c) 8 10 (d) 2 (e) 18 (f) 8 6 30 (g) 12 6 (h) 35 3 14 2 15 + 6 6 (a) (3 + 2)(3 2) = 7 (b) (7 3)(7 + 3) = 46 (c) (4 3 5)(4 3 + 5) = 23 (d) (2 7 + 1)(2 7 1) = 27 (b) 4 2 (b) 50 (b) 6 2
3 2 2 15 6 (b) (c) (d) 2 2 2 3 3( 3+1) 5( 7 5) 6 2 (f) (g) 117 2 2

1 (h)

23+8 5 19

Solutions Lecture 3 Exercises 3.1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 26 = 110102 ,26 = 1015 ,26 = 357 . 1112 = 7,1115 = 31,1117 = 57. 1 1 1 (a) (b) (c) 3 (d) (e) 1 2 27 2 1 1 (d) 2(2x + 5)4 (e) x 3 (a) x1 (b) x3 (c) x 2 1 2 1 xy (a) 5 (b) 3 (c) (d) (x + y )2 (e) 3 x x (2x) x+y (a) 217 (b) 310 (c) 210 (d) 35 (e) x5 (f) 81y 8 (g) a2 b3 (b) 0.2 7 (c) 0.42857 (d) 0.53846 (e) 1.1 8 (a) 0.2 1 1 23 2343 781 111 37 4 (b) (c) = (d) = (e) 1 (a) 9 99 9990 3330 90 30

(h) x5 y 2

Exercises 3.2 1 2 3 (a) 7.892 103 (b) 7.654 103 (c) 7.6 102 (d) 7.765 100 (a) 3 (b) 3 (c) 4 (d) 3 Each indicates a dierent level of accuracy in the answer.

Exercises 3.3 1 Re(5 + 3i) = 5, Im(5 + 3i) = 3, 5 + 3i = 5 3i Re(2 2i) = 2, Im(2 2i) = 2, 2 2i = 2 + 2i

97

(5 + 3i) + (3 + 5i) = 2 + 8i (5 + 3i) (3 + 5i) = 8 2i (5 + 3i)(3 + 5i) = 15 + 25i 9i + 15i2 = 30 + 16i 5 + 3i 3 5i 15 25i 9i 15i2 34i 5 + 3i = = = i = 3 + 5i 3 + 5i 3 5i 9 + 15i 15i 25i2 34 Solutions Lecture 4

Exercises 4.1 1 (a) 8y 2y 2 (d) 5x2 8x (g) x2 + 5x + 6 (j) n2 9 (m) a3 + a2 b + ab2 + b3 2 (a) a(x + y ) (d) 7b(a + 2c) (g) t(at + 2a + 5) (j) (u + 3)(v + 5) (m) (y 1)(x + y ) Exercise 4.2 (a) 16 3 (e) 55 Exercises 4.3 1 (a) a2 + 10x + 25 (d) 9a2 12ab + 4b2 2 (a) (x + 2)2 (d) (s 2t)2 (b) (t 4)2 2 (e) (s + 1 2) (c) (3a + 2b)2 1 2 (f) (x + x ) (b) y 2 4y + 4 (e) m4 + 2m2 n2 + n4 (c) x2 + 4xy + 4y 2 (f) 9x2 y 2 6xyz + z 2 (b) 2 (f) 51 (c) 18 (g) 1 (d) 18 7 (h) 3 (b) y (y 4) (e) 3(2x 1) (h) 2mn(4m + 3n + 5) (k) (2x 3z )(y + 2) (n) (c 4)(x 1) (c) 5a(a 3) (f) x2 (x + 7a) (i) (a + b)(a + b + x) (l) (x y )(a b) (o) (x2 + 2)(x 3) (b) 5t 9 (e) 9a3 6a2 + 18a (h) m2 5m 6 (k) n2 + 6n + 9 (n) a3 + 4a2 + 6a + 3 (c) p2 p + pq + 3q 12 (f) 26y 2 (i) 15c2 + 11c 12 (l) 3a3 22a2 + 7a (o) 2x5 5x4 + 9x3 17x2 + 12x

98

Exercises 4.4 1 (a) (x + 4)2 16 (b) (y 8)2 64 (c) (m 7)2 49 (d) (y + 3 )2 9 2 4 (e) 2 1 2 1 2 2 2 2 (h) (2a b) (b 4) (a + 2 ) 4 (f) (x + 7) 7 (g) (x + 4y ) 16y Solutions Lecture 5 Exercises 5.1 1 2 (a) (x + 3)(x + 7) (d) (x + 3)(x + 5) 3 (a) (x 9)(x + 7) (d) (a + 5)(a + 9) Exercises 5.2 1. (a) (3x + 2)(x + 1) (d) (2x 3)(3x + 1) Exercises 5.3 1 (a) (x + 4)(x 4) (b) (y + x)(y x) (2a + 2b)(2a 2b) (e) (5 + n)(5 n) Exercises 5.4 1. 2. x6 y 6 = (x y )(x5 + x4 y + x3 y 2 + x2 y 3 + xy 4 + y 5 ). x7 y 7 = (x y )(x6 + x5 y + x4 y 2 + x3 y 3 + x2 y 4 + xy 5 + y 6 ) x7 + y 7 = (x + y )(x6 x5 y + x4 y 2 x3 y 3 + x2 y 4 xy 5 + y 6 ). Exercises 5.5 1. Fifth row is Sixth row is 1 1 5 quad 10 6 quad 15 10 20 5 15 99 1 6 1 (f) (a + bc)(a bc) (c) (2a + 3b)(2a 3b) (g) (x2 + y 2 )(x + y )(x y ) (d) 4a2 2b2 = (h) 12(y + 1) (b) (2x + 1)(x + 2) (e) (3x 7)(x 2) (c) (2x + 1)(x + 3) (f) (4 5x)(2x + 3) (b) (y + 1)(y + 5) (e) (b 4)(b 25) (c) (x 11)(x + 10) (f) (m + 11)(m 7) (b) (x + 1)(x + 7) (e) (x 7)(x + 4) (c) (x 4)(x 6) (f) (x 6)(x + 1) (a) 3,7 (b) 1,7 (c) -4,-6 (d) 3,5 (e) -7,4 (f) 6,-1

2. 3.

(x + y )5 = x5 + 5x4 y + 10x3 y 2 + 10x2 y 3 + 5xy 4 + y 5 (a) (a + b)6 = x6 + 6x5 y + 15x4 y 2 + 20x3 y 3 + 15x2 y 4 + 6xy 5 + y 6 (b) (x y )4 = x4 4x3 y + 6x2 y 2 4xy 3 + y 4 (c) (x + 2y )3 = x3 + 6x2 y + 12xy 2 + 8y 3 Solutions Lecture 6

Exercises 6.1 1 (a) y = 9 (d) x = 6 (g) x = 62 (j) a = 6 (m) x = 198 (p) x = 57 (b) x = 8 (e) m = 8 (h) x = 6 (k) y = 10 (n) x = 4 (q) x = 4 (c) a = 8 (f) x = 2 (i) y = (l) y =
9 2 29 5 = 15 8

(o) x (r) x = 2

Exercises 6.2 and Exercises 6.3 (a) a = 3, b = 1 (c) p = 2, q = 1

43 (e) t = 1 3, v = 3 (g) w1 = 1, w2 = 5 (i) x = 0, y = 0 or x = 2, y = 4 (k) x = 1, y = 1 or x = 1 4, y = 4

(b) x = 2, y = 1 (d) x = 10, y = 2 (f) x = 3, y = 2 (h) x = 0, y = 0 or x = 1, y = 1 (j) x = 0, y = 3 or x = 3, y = 0 1 5 (l) a = 3 2, b = 2, c = 2

Solutions Lecture 7 Exercises 7.1 1 (a) x = 4, 6 (d) x = 3, 2 3 2 (a) x = 3, 4 (d) x = 1, 7 (g) x = 2, 4 (j) p = 1, 2 3 (b) y = 1, 7 (e) b = 5 (h) d = 1, 11 (k) q = 2, 1 2 100 (c) z = 5, 8 (f) c = 3, 12 (i) h = 2 (l) r = 4, 3 2 (b) y = 2 (e) b = 0, 3 2 (c) x = 0, 5 (f) x = 1, 2, 3

1 (m) x = 1 7, 5 (p) x = 0, 1, 2

2 (n) x = 1 2, 5 (q) x = 0, 3, 3

1 3 (o) x = 13 ,2 (r) x = 0, 2, 7 3

Exercises 7.2 1 (a) x = 2

7 33 4 9 21 6 2 3 , 3 2 2 11 7 1 x= 3 b = 314 37

(b) x =

(c) x =

(d) No solution (g) x = 0, 9 (j) x = 3 2 2 (a) 2 (b) 0

(e) x = (h) a = (k) x = 6, 8 (c) 2

(f) (i) (l) x = 0, 2, 4 (e) 0

(d) 1

(f) 1

Exercises 7.3 1 2 3 (a) x = 0, 2, 3 (b) x = 2, 1, 1

(a) x = 1, 2 (b) x = 0, 0, 3, 5 (a) x = 2 (b) x = 2 Solutions Lecture 8

Exercises 8.1 1 2 (a) False (b) True (c) False (d) True (e) True (c) x [2, 3)

(a) x [2, 1)

(b) x (, 2] (3, )

Exercises 8.2 (a) x > 3 (d) r > 9 (g) x 6 (j) x < 2, x 1 Exercises 8.3 (a) x < 4, x > 3 (d) 3 < x < 3 (g) x 2 3, x
1 2

(b) x 30 (e) x > 10 3 (h) x 1 (k) 3 < x < 2

(c) y 5 2 (f) 2 < x 2 (i) b 45 4 (l) x > 1, x < 1

(b) 7 y 1 (e) x < 3, x > 2 (h) x 4, x 4 101

(c) z 8, z 5 (f) 5 2 x5 (i) 2 < x < 3

Exercises 8.4 (a) 17 (b) (c) 1 (d) -1 (e) 1 (f) |x|

Exercises 8.5 1 (a) x = 6 (d) x = 2, 6 (g) No solution (j) x = 2 2 (a) x > 6, x < 6 (d) 2 x 6 (g) x R (j) 2 < x < 2 (b) x > 6, x < 6 (e) x 3, x 13 (h) x 9, x 3 (k) x
7 2

(b) x = 6 (e) x = 3, 13 (h) x = 3, 9 (k) x = 7 2

(c) No solution (f) x = 4, 8 (i) x = 1 (l) x [1, 2] (c) x R (f) x < 4, x > 8 (i) x 1 (l) x [1, 2]

Solutions Lecture 9 Exercise 9.1 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 ... xn = 2n 1 or xn+1 = xn + 2 , x1 = 1. 2 6 16 54 162 486 1558 ... xn = 2.3n1 or xn+1 = 3xn , x1 = 2. 1 8 27 64 125 216 343 ... xn = n3 (or xn+1 = xn + 3n2 + 3n + 1, x1 = 1). 2 3 5 7 11 13 17 19 23 29 ... No formula possible. Prime numbers. 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 ... xn+2 = xn+1 + xn , x1 = 1, x2 = 1. Fibonacchi numbers. Exercise 9.2 1. 1000.(1 + 1000)/2 = 500500 2. x27 = 5 + (27 1).3 = 83, s27 = 27.(5 + 83)/2 = 1188 3. There are n + 1 odd numbers on the list. Thus the sum is (n + 1)(1 + (2n + 1))/2 = (n + 1)2 . Exercise 9.3 1. x12 = 8.(1/2)11 = 1/256, s12 = 8.(1 (1/2)12 )/(1 1/2) = 15 255 256 = 0.9 + 0.09 + 0.009 + ... which is a GP with a = 9/10 and r = 1/10. Then 2. 0.9 s = a/(1 r) = 1. 102

Solutions Lecture 10 Exercises 10.1 (4 1)2 + (6 2)2 = 5 (a) Midpoint is ( 5 2 , 4), Distance is (b) Midpoint is (1, 2), Distance is 62 + 22 = 2 10 ), Distance is 02 + 92 = 9 (c) Midpoint is (3, 5 2 Exercises 10.3
4 4

2 -2 -1 1 2 1

-2

(a)

-4

(b)

-2

-1

4 3

2 1

2 -2 1 -1.5 -1 -0.5 -1 -2 -3 0.5 1 1.5 2

(c)

-4

-2

(d)

-4

3 400 2 1 200

-2

-1.5

-1

-0.5 -1 -2

0.5

1.5

-20

-15

-10

-5 -200

10

15

20

-400

(e)

-3

(f)
30 20

1 0.75 0.5 0.25 -4 -3 -2 -1 -0.25 -0.5 1 2 3 4

10 2 -10 -20 4 6 8 10

-0.75

(g)

-1

(h)

-30

103

Solutions Lecture 11 Exercises 11.1

5 1

-5

-4

-3

-2

-1

-1

-2

-3

-3

-2

-1

-4

-1

-5

1(a) y = 2x + 3
3 -4 2

1(b) y = x 3
-2 2 4

-2 1

-3

-2

-1

-4

-1 -6

-2 -8 -3

1(c) y = 3 2x +
2 1.5

1 2

1(d) y = 7

0.5

-1

-0.5 -0.5

0.5

1.5

2.5

4 -1 2 -1.5 0.5 -2 1 1.5 2 2.5 3

1(e) x = 2

2. x = 2, y = 5

104

Exercises 11.2
3 4 2 2 1 -5 1 2 3 4 -4 -3 -2 -1 -2 1

-1

-4

(a) x 3, x 1
10 8 6 4 2

(b) 4 < x < 0

7 6 5 4 3 2 1

-5

-4

-3

-2

-1

2 -3 -2 -1 1 2

(c) x >

3+ 5 ,x 2

<

3 5 2

(d) No such x

Solutions Lecture 12 Exercises 12.1

150 10 100 50 -3 -2 -1 1 2 3 4 -4 -2 -50 -20 -100 2 4

-10

1(a) y = (x 1)(x 3)(x + 2)

0.2 0.1

1(b) y = x(x + 5)(x 1)(3 x)

15 10 5

-1

-0.5 -0.1 -0.2

0.5

1.5

2 -3 -2 -1 -5 -10 1 2 3

-0.3 -15

1(c) y = x2 (x 1)

1(d) y = 4x x3

105

15 10 2 5 1 -4 -3 -2 -1 -5 -3 -10 -15 -1 -2 -1 1 2 1 2

1(e) y = x3 + 3x2 x 3 Exercises 12.2

2 -2

1(f) y = x4 + 2x3 x2 2x

-1 -1

1 -2

-2

-1

-3

-4 -1 -5

-2

-6

1(a) Centre at (0,0), Radius 2

1 0.5

1(b) Centre at (2,-5), Radius

10

1 2

8 -2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 -0.5 -1 4 -1.5 -2 -2.5 -3 2 0.5 1 1.5 2 6

1(c) Centre at (0,-1), Radius

-6

-4

-2

2.

(x + 1)2 + (y 5)2 = 16

106

Solutions Lecture 13 Exercise 13.1

10 8 6 1.5 4 1 2 0.5 1 -3 -2 -1 1 2 3 3 2.5 2

-5

-4

-3

-2

-1

(y 1) = (x + 2)2
3 2.5 2

2.

y = |x|
5 4 3

1.5 2 1 0.5 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 1 -3 -2 -1 1

2 Exercise 13.2
5 4 3 2 1

y = |x + 2|

2.

y = |x| + 2
5 4 3 2 1

-3

-2

-1

-4

-3

-2

-1

y = 1/x
1 0.8

2.

y = 1/(x + 1)
1 0.75 0.5

0.6 0.4 0.2 -3 -2 -1

0.25 1 -0.25 -0.5 -0.75 2 3

-3

-2

-1

-1

3(a)

y = 1/(x + 1)

3(b)

y = x/(x2 + 1)

107

1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 -3 -2 -1

3 2 1

1 -1 -2

-3

-2

-1

-3

3(c)

y = x /(x + 1)
3 2 1

4(a)

y = 1/(x2 1)
3 2 1

-3

-2

-1 -1 -2 -3

-3

-2

-1 -1 -2 -3

4(b)

y = x/(x2 1)

4(c)
4

y = x2 /(x2 1)

-4

-2 -2

-4

y = x + 1/x (b) see Exercise 13.2 Question 4(a)

3 2 1

Exercise 13.3 (a) see Exercise 13.2 Question 1

3 2.5 2 1.5

-4 1 0.5 -1 -0.5 0.5 1

-2 -1 -2 -3

1(c)

y = 1/ 1 x2

1(d)

y = 1/(|x| 2)

108