Midterm Exam Review

Topics to be covered: Section 1.11.10 and 2.1.

Tips for success: Please review my lecture notes, all problems I did in class, quiz reviews, and
do some practice problems in Textbook.
Name:
Sample Exam

Please read the instruction carefully

Write your solutions in a blue book. To receive full credit you must show all work. You are
allowed to use an approved graphing calculator unless otherwise indicated. Simplify your answer
when possible, but use the precise value rather than an approximation when you have a choice.
(Example: If the actual answer is , then write , not 3.14.) There are 10 problems worth a
total of 100 points. The time limit is 1 hour [60 minutes].

1. (a) (4 points) Real Numbers List the elements of the set

2
 
3 246 20
0, 1.3, 1.3333 . . . , 5, 5.34, 500, 1 , 16, 125, , ,
3 579 5
that are

(a1) natural numbers (a3) rational numbers

(a2) integers (a4) irrational numbers

(b) (4 points) Absolute Value Let max(a, b) denote the maximum and min(a, b) de-
note the minimum of the real numbers a and b. For example, max(2, 5) = 5 and
min(1, 2) = 2. Prove that the distance between max(a, b) and min(a, b) is
d(max(a, b), min(a, b)) = |a b|.

2. (10 points) Radicals and Exponents Simplify the following

!5
2 1
32 5 + 32 5 (b) ( 4 8 4 2)2
(a) 3 1
32 5 + 32 5

3. (10 points) Algebraic Expressions Simplify the following completely:

3x 6 x
(a) 2

2x + 3x 2 1 2x
1 x1
+ 2
(b) x + 1 x 2x 3
1 4
2
x 1 x 4x + 3
(Exam continues on the next page)

1
4. (10 points) Equations

(a) Solve the linear equation 2x + 3 = 7 3x and explain each step in words.
(b) Solve the equation |x + 1|2 + |x + 1| 6 = 0.

5. (10 points) Complex Numbers

(a) Evaluate the radical expression, and express the result in the form a + bi:

2 + 8

1 + 2

(b) Find all solutions of the equation and express them in the form a + bi:
3
t+3+ =0
t
6. Modeling with Equations

(a) (6 points) Each course at Pease County Community College is worth either 3 or 4
credits. The members of the womens golf team are taking a total of 27 courses that
a worth a total of 89 credits. How many 3-credit courses and how many 4-credit
courses are being taken?
(b) (6 points) Lamont walks the 15 meters from the front door of his house to his car at
a constant rate of speed. Having forgotten to lock the front door, Lamont runs the
15 meters back to the front door along the same path. His speed running is 2m/sec
faster than his speed walking. If the total time to walk to the car and run back to the
door was 8 seconds, what was Lamonts walking speed?

7. (10 points) Inequalities

(a) Let f (x) = 3|2 x| 1. Find all numbers x, if any, such that f (x) < 13. Please
state your answer in interval notation.
(b) Solve the inequality 5x x3 . Please state your answer in interval notation.

8. The Coordinate Plane

(a) (4 points) Find an equation of the circle that lies in the first quadrant, tangent to
both x- and y-axes with radius 5.
(b) (6 points) Find the lengths of the medians of the triangle with vertices A(1, 0), B(3, 6),
and C(8, 2). (A median is a line segment from a vertex to the midpoint of the opposite
site.)

(Exam continues on the next page)

2
 9. Lines

(a) (4 points) Find the equation of the line containing the points 32 , 12 and 32 , 52 .

(b) (6 points) Find the equation of the line that is perpendicular to the line 2x 3y = 5
and passes through the point (2, 4). Sketch the line.

10. Fuctions

(a) (3 points) Let f be the function given by f (x) = x2 3x + 2. Find and simplify

f (x + h) f (x)
h

(b) In a certain state the maximum speed permitted on freeways is 65 mi/h, and the
minimum is 40 mi/h. The fine F for violating these limits is $15 for every mile above
the maximum or below the minimum.
(b1) (2 points) Complete the expressions in the following piecewise defined function,
where x is the speed at which you are driving.

if 0 < x < 40
F = if 40 x 65
if x > 65

(b2) (2 points) Find F (30), F (50), and F (75).

(b3) (2 points) What do your answers in part (b2) represent?
(b4) (1 point) Sketch the graph of F .

The End