AP Calculus AB 2019-2020 Summer Assignment

Dear Future AP Student,

I hope you are excited for the year of Calculus that we will be pursuing together! I don’t know how much you know
about Calculus, but it is not like any other branch of math that you have learned so far in your math careers. We will
be having a lot of fun – and doing a lot of work – learning about derivatives (for the first semester) and integrals (for
the second semester). You don’t need to know what those things are (yet) but I will tell you that Calculus is described
as the “mathematics of change” – how fast things change, how to predict change, and how to use information about
change to understand the systems themselves.

Actually, in some ways, Calculus is taking what you already know a step further. You know how to find the slope of a
line, right? You probably don’t know how to find the slope of a curve because it’s constantly changing – but Calculus
helps us do that. So ‘traditional’ math tells us how to find the slope of a line, and Calculus tells us how to find the
slope of a curve. ‘Traditional’ math tells us how to find the length of a rope pulled taut, but Calculus tells us how to
find the length of a curved rope. ‘Traditional’ math tells us how to find the area of a flat, rectangular roof, but
Calculus tells us how to find the area of a curved dome-shaped roof. Get the idea?

How does Calculus manage to pull this off? Imagine a curve like this:

If you were to zoom in a few times, each part of the curve would look kind of like a line, wouldn’t it? And if “a few
times” wasn’t enough, you could zoom in more. And more. And more. In fact, you could zoom in nearly an infinite
number of times until the curve became enough like a line that you could treat it that way. “What makes calculus
such a fantastic achievement is that it actually zooms in infinitely. In fact, everything you do in calculus involves infinity
in one way or another, because if something is constantly changing, it’s changing infinitely often from each
infinitesimal moment to the next.” (taken from
http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/84/07645249/0764524984.pd f)

This process – doing something an infinite number of times until the problem becomes figure-out-able – is the
foundation of Calculus. The process is called a “limit” and it’s what we’ll be talking about when school begins.

In order to give you a head start in the understanding of limits, I’ve designed a few things for you to do. I’ve tried to
make it fairly straightforward so you can still enjoy your summer, but I think this will get us rolling more quickly in
August and therefore will put you in a better position to take your AP in May. Please answer the questions that
follow and bring this packet with you for the first day of school in September. Feel free to send an email to
jcotugno@ccboe.com if you have any questions!

See you in August!

Mr. Cotugno

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Problems:

1.) Graphically solve 2 sin x  x . Round solutions to the nearest thousandth. *Must be in radian mode.

2.)Graph f ( x)  3 xe 0.2 x . Hit Zoom, 6. Round to the nearest thousandth.

a.) Domain? b.) Range? c.) Maximum points?

d.) Increasing on what intervals? e.) Decreasing on what intervals? f.) Asymptotes?

Topic #2: SOLVING EQUATIONS

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Solve each problem by hand. You may check your work in the calculator. Use a separate piece of paper.

2 1 1 1
1.) p p 2.) 1  x6 3.) x 2  7 x  12  0
3 2 3 2

4.) 3x 2  5 x  2 5.) x 4  x 2 6.) x 2  25  10 x

1 1 2 1
7.)   8.)  2 x  5 4  2 9.)  x  1 3  27
a 2 a

x 1
10.)  1 11.) x  x  2 12.) x 2  3 x  4  14
x3 3

x4 1
13.) 0 14.) ( x  5) 2  9 15.) 2 x 2  5 x  8
x3

16.) ( x  3)( x  3)  0 17.) x 2  2 x  15  0 18.) 12 x 2  3 x

19.) sin 2 x  sin x , 0≤x≤2π 20.) x3  7 21.) e 3k  5

22.) ( x  1) 2 ( x  2)  ( x  1)( x  2) 2  0 23.) 27 2 x  9 x 3

24.) log x  log( x  3)  1 25.) ln y  2t  3

Topic #3: INTERVAL NOTATION

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Fill in the missing parts of the table.

Solution Interval Notation Graph

2 x 4
[-1 , 7)

Topic #4: GRAPHS OF PARENT FUNCTIONS

The following functions are the basic “parent” functions that you should know instantly. Actual points should be plotted
(at least three) in the creation of these graphs. You should be able to produce these “on demand” and know them “in
your head” without having to graph them on your Graphing Calculator.

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1.) y  sin x 2.) y  cos x 3.) y  tan x 4.) y  x 3  2 x 2  3 x

x4 x2  4
5.) y  x 2  6 x  1 6.) y  7.) y  8.) y  e x
x 1 x2

9.) y  x 10.) y  3 x 11.) y  ln x 12.) y  x3 2

x2
If x<0
x2
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13.) y  14.) y= 4 If 0≤x≤3
x
If x>3

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Simplify

1 1 4
1 1 2
x x2 x2
1.) 2.) 3.)
1 1 10
1 3 2 5
x x x2

1 6 x 1
5  
n n2 x 1 x
4.) 5.)
2 2 x 1
 
n n2 x 1 x

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