University Calculus: Early Transcendentals (3rd Edition)

Published by Pearson
ISBN 10: 0321999584
ISBN 13: 978-0-32199-958-0

Chapter 2 - Section 2.1 - Rates of Change and Tangents to Curves - Exercises - Page 56: 9

Answer

(a) The slope of the tangent line of the curve at $P$ is $2$. (b) The equation of the tangent line of the curve at $P$ is $y=2x-7$

Work Step by Step

$$y=x^2-2x-3\hspace{1cm} P(2,-3)$$ 1) First, take $Q(2+h,y)$ to be a nearby point of $P$ on the graph of the function. $$y=(2+h)^2-2(2+h)-3=4+4h+h^2-4-2h-3$$ $$y=2h+h^2-3=h^2+2h-3$$ So $Q(2+h,h^2+2h-3)$ 2) Find the slope of the secant $PQ$: $$\frac{\Delta y}{\Delta x}=\frac{h^2+2h-3-(-3)}{2+h-2}=\frac{h^2+2h-3+3}{h}=\frac{h^2+2h}{h}=h+2$$ 3) Find out what happens if $Q$ approaches $P$ As $Q$ approaches $P$, $2+h$ will gradually approach $2$, while $h^2+2h-3$ approaches $-3$. Both of these mean that $h$ will approach $0$ and hence secant slope $h+2$ will approach $2$. So we take $2$ the slope of the tangent line of the curve at $P$. 4) The equation of the tangent line at $P$ would have this form: $$y=2x+b$$ Replace the coordinates of $P$ here to find $b$: $$2\times2+b=-3$$ $$4+b=-3$$ $$b=-7$$ Therefore, the equation of the tangent line of the curve at $P$ is $y=2x-7$
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