Assume that a particle (all hopped up on caffeine) is moving along the y-axis, and its velocity (in

ft/sec) at any time t (in seconds) is given by .

(a) If its position at time t = 0 is two units below the origin, find the position equation x(t).
(b) What is the particle's average accleration on the interval t = [2,5] ? Include units.
(c) What is the particle's average position on the same interval?
(d) How many times does the particle change direction on the t interval [0,10]?
(e) When, during the t interval [0,10], is the particle moving upward?
(f) What is the total distance traveled by the particle on [0,10]?

Difficulty Rating:

Solution:
(a) The antiderivative of v is position, so

Now, you know that x(0) = 2 from the given info, so

(b) The average acceleration is given by the slope of the secant line to velocity on t = [2,5].

(You could also have found the derivative of velocity, which is acceleration, and used the
average value of a function formula.)

(c) To calculate average position, find the average value of the position equation.
 (d) The particle may change direction when it stops (when velocity is 0). However, you must
verify that the direction actually changes, which you can do by examining the sign of the
velocity (in this problem, positive velocity indicates upward movement, and negative velocity,
downward movement). All of this can be accomplished with a wiggle graph of velocity. Begin
by finding critical points for velocity:

Uh oh. This equation does not have any solutions, and therefore, the velocity never equals 0, and
the particle never changes direction! Thus, the particle only goes in one direction the entire time.
Plug any point on t = [0,10] into the derivative to determine the sign (and hence the direction of
the particle on that interval). The particle always moves upward.

(e) We just answered that question, dadgum it.

(f) Since the particle doesn't change direction, the total distance traveled is
x(10) - x(0) = 2948 ( 2) = 2950 feet.
 Calculus I (AB): The Fundamental Theorem of Calculus

Let where f is the function graphed above.

(a) Evaluate g(4) and g'(4).
(b) Where on the interval [0,5] is g increasing? concave up?
(c) How many roots does g have on [0,5]?
(d) Rank these numbers from lowest to highest: -1, 0, 1, g(0), g(2), g(4).
(e) Is the average value of g'(x) over the interval [0,3] greater than 1? Justify.
Difficulty Rating:
Source: Calculus from Graphical, Numerical, and Symbolic Points of View, Ostebee and
Zorn, 1997, p. 376.
Solution:
(a) This is an accumulation function, so g gets its area by acumulating area beneath f. Because
these are circles (two quarter-circles in this part of the problem), this is easy. Note, however, that
the functions begins accumulating at 1, according to the boundaries:

(b) Remember that g'(x) = f(x), so when f is positive, g is increasing. Thus, g is increasing on
(2,5). Similarly, when f '(x) is positive, g is concave up (since f '(x)=g''(x)). Also, f '(x) is positive
when f(x) is increasing, so g(x) is concave up on (1,4).

(c) In order to do this, we should sketch a graph of g(x). I used the below table (which I got by
plugging in each x into g(x) and finding the accumlated area like we did in part (a)) to graph g,
and graphing it makes it clear that g(x) has two roots, or x-intercepts.

(d) Once we've done the chart for part (c), this is easy. The order goes: -1, g(0), 0, g(2), 1, g(4).

(e) A major part of this problem will be approximating the area from x = 0 to 3 on the graph.
Up to x = 2 is easy, but that area between x = 2 and x = 3 needs to be approximated. I
approximate is as about 1.3 square units. Then, I use the average value formula to get:
It is clear that the average value must be less than one, not greater. In order for the average value
to be 3, the area between x = 2 and x = 3 would have to larger than 3! The area between x = 0 and
x = 2 is already quite negative, so the area on (2,3) would have to make up for that to ensure that
the total is greater than 3, so that once we multiply by (1/3), the average value would be greater
than one. Clearly, that small sliver of area between x = 2 and x = 3 cannot be larger than 3 square
units, so the answer is no.