Exercises on

Functions

Laurenz Wiskott
Institut fur Neuroinformatik
Ruhr-Universitat Bochum, Germany, EU

2 February 2017

Contents

1 Scalar functions in one variable 3

1.1 Elementary transformations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1.1.1 Exercise: Stepwise transformation of an elementary function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1.1.2 Exercise: Stepwise construction of a given function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1.1.3 Exercise: Stepwise construction of a given function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1.2 Combination of functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1.2.1 Exercise: Combinations of functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1.3 Composition of functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1.3.1 Exercise: Composite functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1.3.2 Exercise: Composite functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1.3.3 Exercise: Analytical expressions for given function graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1.4 Logarithmic plots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2 Scalar functions in two variables 5

2.1 Visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2017 Laurenz Wiskott (homepage https://www.ini.rub.de/PEOPLE/wiskott/). This work (except for all figures from
other sources, if present) is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view
a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. Figures from other sources have their own
copyright, which is generally indicated. Do not distribute parts of these lecture notes showing figures with non-free copyrights
(here usually figures I have the rights to publish but you dont, like my own published figures).
Several of my exercises (not necessarily on this topic) were inspired by papers and textbooks by other authors. Unfortunately,
I did not document that well, because initially I did not intend to make the exercises publicly available, and now I cannot trace
it back anymore. So I cannot give as much credit as I would like to. The concrete versions of the exercises are certainly my
own work, though.
These exercises complement my corresponding lecture notes available at https://www.ini.rub.de/PEOPLE/wiskott/

Teaching/Material/, where you can also find other teaching material such as programming exercises. The table of contents of
the lecture notes is reproduced here to give an orientation when the exercises can be reasonably solved. For best learning effect
I recommend to first seriously try to solve the exercises yourself before looking into the solutions.

1
 2.1.1 Set of curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2.1.2 Contour graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2.1.3 3D-graphics / surface plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2.2 Elementary transformations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2.3 Linear coordinate transformations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2.3.1 Exercise: Stepwise transformation of a simple function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2.3.2 Exercise: Stepwise transformation of a simple function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2.3.3 Exercise: Simplify a function with stepwise transformations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3 Vectorial functions in one variable 6

3.1 Visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

3.1.1 Set of curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

3.1.2 Sequence of a vector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

3.1.3 Trajectory in phase space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

3.1.4 Exercise: Trajectories in phase space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

3.1.5 Exercise: Trajectories in phase space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

3.1.6 Exercise: Analytical expressions for given trajectories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

4 Vectorial functions in two variables 7

4.1 Visualization as a vector field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

4.1.1 Exercise: Vector field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

4.1.2 Exercise: Analytic expression for a given vector field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

4.1.3 Exercise: Analytic expression for a given vector field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

5 Differential operators 8

5.1 Partial derivatives and the Nabla operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

5.2 Gradient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

5.2.1 Exercise: Contour plot and gradient field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

5.2.2 Exercise: Gradient field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

5.3 Divergence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

2
1 Scalar functions in one variable

1.1 Elementary transformations

1.1.1 Exercise: Stepwise transformation of an elementary function

Construct the following functions step by step, for each intermediate step write down an equation and sketch
the graph.

(a) Begin with y = x3 ,

i) Shift the function 7 units to the left,

ii) Stretch the function vertically by a factor of 8,
iii) Flip the function at the y-axis.

(b) Begin with y = cos(x),

i) Stretch the function horizontally by a factor of 2;

ii) Shift the function 3 units up;
iii) Flip the function at the x-axis.

(c) Begin with y = ex ,

i) Flip the function at the x-axis,

ii) Shift the function 5 units to the right and 12 units down,
iii) Flip the function at the diagonal y = x.

1.1.2 Exercise: Stepwise construction of a given function

Construct and draw the following functions by stepwise transformation of the underlying elementary function.
Illustrate each step.

(a) 3 sin(x + /4)

(b) 1/[(x 2)3 1]

1.1.3 Exercise: Stepwise construction of a given function

Construct and draw the following functions by stepwise transformation of the underlying elementary function.
Illustrate each step.

(a) e2(x3) + 7
x3
(b) x3 +1

3
1.2 Combination of functions

1.2.1 Exercise: Combinations of functions

Discuss the following functions intuitively, like in the lecture, and sketch them.

x2
(a) f (x) = cos (x) + 20 (sum of functions)
2
(b) g(x) = x sin(x) (product of functions)

1.3 Composition of functions

1.3.1 Exercise: Composite functions

Discuss the following functions intuitively, like in the lecture, and sketch them.

(a) ln(x2 )
(b) esin x
(c) sin(1/x)

1.3.2 Exercise: Composite functions

Discuss the following functions intuitively, like in the lecture, and sketch them.
2
+2)2
(a) e(x
(b) ln(x)2

1.3.3 Exercise: Analytical expressions for given function graphs

Find a formula for each of the following sketched functions:

(a) (b) (c)

(d) (e) (f)

CC BY-SA 4.0
Hint: You can use AnalyticalExpressionsForGivenGraphs-Exercise.ipynb and add the missing code to
verify your guesses.

4
1.4 Logarithmic plots

2 Scalar functions in two variables

2.1 Visualization

2.1.1 Set of curves

2.1.2 Contour graphics

2.1.3 3D-graphics / surface plot

2.2 Elementary transformations

2.3 Linear coordinate transformations

2.3.1 Exercise: Stepwise transformation of a simple function

p
Transform the function z = x2 + y 2 step by step as follows:

1. Compress the function by a factor 1/2 in the x-direction and stretch it by a factor 3 in the y-direction.
2. Shift the function horizontally 3 units to the left in x-direction and 1 unit up in y-direction.
3. Shift the function vertically 2 units down in z-direction.

For each step write a corresponding equation and sketch the final result if you combine all three steps.

2.3.2 Exercise: Stepwise transformation of a simple function

Transform the function    

2 0 x
f (x) = xT x, x= (1)
0 1 y
as follows:

1. Rotate the function clockwise by 30 degrees.

Hint: sin(/6) = 1/2, cos(/6) = 3/2.
2. Shift the function horizontally by a = (1, 2)T .

Write a corresponding equation for each step and sketch the final result. Use matrix notation as far as
possible.

2.3.3 Exercise: Simplify a function with stepwise transformations

Consider the function

f0 (x, y) := 1/2 x + 5y + 3/2x2 + xy + 3/2y 2 . (1)

5
 1. Write the function in matrix notation like

f0 (x) = c + f T x + xT Hx , (2)

with a scalar c, vectors f and x = (x, y), and a symmetric 2 2-matrix H.

2. Find a horizontal shift a and a vertical shift b such that

f1 (x) := xT Vx := b + f0 (x a) (3)

for a symmetric matrix V.

3. Find a rotation  
cos() sin()
R := (4)
sin() cos()
of the coordinates such that matrix V0 of the function

f2 (x) := xT V0 x := f1 (Rx) (5)

becomes diagonal.

4. Sketch the function f0 (x, y) without using a calculator.

3 Vectorial functions in one variable

3.1 Visualization

3.1.1 Set of curves

3.1.2 Sequence of a vector

3.1.3 Trajectory in phase space

3.1.4 Exercise: Trajectories in phase space

Sketch the trajectories of the following functions without using a computer or pocket calculator.

(a) f (a) = (cos (a), sin (2a))

(b) f (t) = (sin2 (6t) sin(t), sin2 (6t) cos(t))

3.1.5 Exercise: Trajectories in phase space

Sketch the trajectories of the following functions without using a computer or pocket calculator.

(a) f (t) = ((1 1/t) sin t, (1 1/t) cos t)T , 1t

2
(b) f (a) = (cos (2a) + a, cos (2a))T

6
3.1.6 Exercise: Analytical expressions for given trajectories

Invent functions f (t) = (x(t), y(t)) that generate trajectory plots like those below.

(a) (b) (c)

CC BY-SA 4.0
Hint: You can use AnalyticalExpressionsForGivenTrajectories-Exercise.ipynb and add the missing
code to verify your guesses.

4 Vectorial functions in two variables

4.1 Visualization as a vector field

4.1.1 Exercise: Vector field

Draw the vector field (y, x) .

4.1.2 Exercise: Analytic expression for a given vector field

Find an analytic expression for the following vector field.

10

-5

-10
-10 -5 0 5 10

CC BY-SA 4.0
4.1.3 Exercise: Analytic expression for a given vector field

Find an analytic expression for the following vector field.

7
 1

0.5

y
-0.5

-1
-2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
x

CC BY-SA 4.0
5 Differential operators

5.1 Partial derivatives and the Nabla operator

5.2 Gradient

5.2.1 Exercise: Contour plot and gradient field

Consider the function

X(u, v) = u2 (u 1)2 + v 2 . (1)

1. Calculate the gradient field of the function.

2. Sketch the function with a contour plot and draw the gradient field, both without the help of a
calculator.

5.2.2 Exercise: Gradient field

Calculate the gradient of the function f (x, y) = xy 12 y 2 . Sketch the gradient field and the level lines.

5.3 Divergence