Medium Questions

3
1 (a) The equation of a curve is y = x 2 − 15x + 2 .
2

dy
Find .
dx

(2 marks)

(b) The gradient of the tangent to the curve at point A is −3 .

Find

(i) the coordinates of A

(ii) Give your answer in the form y = mx + c .

(4 marks)

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2 (a) Consider the function f (x ) = 3x 7 − 12x .

Find f ' (x ) .

(1 mark)

(b) Find the gradient of the graph of f at x = 0 .

(2 marks)

(c) Find the coordinates of the points at which the normal to the graph of f has a gradient
of 4.

(3 marks)

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 4
3 (a) The equation of a curve is y = 4 − .
x

Find the equation of the tangent to the curve at x = 2 .

Give your answer in the form y = mx + c .

(3 marks)

(b) Find the coordinates of the points on the curve where the gradient is 16 .

(3 marks)

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 4 2x 4 2
4 (a) Consider the function f (x ) = + − , x ≠ 0.
x 5 5

Calculate

(i) f (2)

(ii) f '(2) .

(3 marks)

(b) A line, l , is tangent to the graph of y = f (x ) at the point x = 2 .

Find the equation of l . Give your answer in the form y = mx + c .

(3 marks)

(c) The graph of y = f (x ) and l have a second intersection at point A .

Use your graphic display calculator to find the coordinates of A .

(2 marks)

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5 (a) Consider the function f (x ) = x 2 − bx + c .

Find f ' (x ) .

(1 mark)

(b) The equation of the tangent line to the graph y = f (x ) at x = 2 is y = x − 1 .

Calculate the value of b .

(2 marks)

(c) Calculate the value of c and write down the function f (x ) .

(3 marks)

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6 (a) The curve with equation y = ax 2 + bx + c has a gradient of − 7 at the point (−1, 13) ,
and a gradient of − 3 at the point (1, 3) .

dy
By considering show that 2 a + b = − 3 and −2 a + b = − 7 .
dx

(2 marks)

(b) Hence find the values of a and b .

(1 mark)

(c) By considering a point that you know to be on the curve, find the value of c .

(2 marks)

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 4
7 (a) The curve C has equation y = 3x 2 − 6 + . The point P (1, 1) lies on C .
x

dy
Find an expression for .
dx

(2 marks)

(b) Show that an equation of the normal to C at point P is x + 2y = 3 .

(3 marks)

(c) This normal cuts the x -axis at the point Q .

Find the length of PQ , giving your answer as an exact value.

(2 marks)

8 Find the values of x for which f (x ) = − 9x 2 + 5x − 3 is an increasing function.

(3 marks)

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9 Show that the function f (x ) = x 3 − 3x 2 + 6x − 7 is increasing for all x ∈ℝ.

(3 marks)

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10 (a) The graph of the cubic function y = f (x ) is shown below. Point A , a local minimum, is
located at the origin and point B , a local maximum, sits at the point (4, 8) .

State the equations of the horizontal tangent to the curve.

(2 marks)

(b) Write down the value of x where the point of inflection is located.

(1 mark)

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(c) Find the intervals where f is decreasing.

(2 marks)

(d) Sketch the graph of f '(x ) , labelling clearly any intercepts and axis of symmetry.

(3 marks)

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