Lecture Notes Implicit Dierentiation page 1

Sample Problems

1. Find the equation of the tangent line drawn to the graph of 3x2 16xy 2y 2 + 3y = 178 at the point
( 3; 5).

2. Consider the relation determined by the equation xy 2 5x = 2 y 2 + x2 y 16 . Find an equation for all
tangent line(s) drawn to the graph of the relation at x = 3.

3. If y = f (x) is a function, we dene the curvature as

jy 00 j
C (x) = 3=2
1 + (y 0 )2
p
Prove that if f (x) = r2 x2 where r > 0; then the curvature is constant on the interval ( r; r).

Practice Problems

1. Find the slope of the tangent line drawn to the graph of x4 y 4 = 2x2 y + 23 to the point (2; 1).

2. Find an equation for the tangent line drawn to the graph of x3 + y 3 5y 2 = 6x2 + 13x 42 at the point
( 3; 5).

3. Find an equation for all tangent lines drawn to the graph of 2x2 + y 2 = 5y x at x = 2.

4. Find an equation of all tangent lines drawn to the curve x2 xy + y 2 = 16 at x = 0:

5. Use implicit dierentiation to compute y 0 in terms of x and y:

p
a) 2x2 + 4xy = 10 1 j) y 3 + y = x2 y2
f) x2 + y 2 =
y
b) x4 + y 4 = 20y k) 2x+y = xy 3
g) sin x + cos y = 2y 3 p
c) x3 + y 3 = 2xy l) y + xy = xy 2
d) x3 + y3 = x2 + y2 h) x4 y xy 4 =y m) ln y = sin (xy) 1
2
e) ln x 2 + y2 = y5 i) x3 + y 3 = (x y)5 n) sin3 x + sin3 y =x+y

c Hidegkuti, Powell, 2009 Last revised: May 21, 2011

Lecture Notes Implicit Dierentiation page 2

Sample Problems - Answers

1.) y = 2x + 11 2.) y = 5x + 32 and y = x+2 3.) see solutions

Practice Problems - Answers

1. 10

2. 2 (x + 3) = y 5

3. y = 7x 12 and y = 7x + 17
1 1
4. y = x + 4 and y = x 4
2 2
x+y x3 3x2 2y 3x2 + 2x
5. a) y 0 = b) y 0 = c) y 0 = d) y 0 =
x y3 5 2x 3y 2 3y 2 2y

1 2xy 2 cos x y4 4x3 y

e) y 0 = f) y 0 = g) y 0 = h) y 0 =
x (2y 5y 4 ) 2y 3 + 1 sin y 6y 2 x4 4xy 3 1

3x2 + 5 (x y)4 x y 3 (ln 2) 2x+y

i) y 0 = j) y0 = k) y 0 =
3y 2 + 5 (x y)4 y + (y + y 3 ) (3y 2 + 1) 3xy 2 + (ln 2) 2x+y

p
y 2y xy 2 y 2 cos xy
l) y0 = p p m) y 0 =
2 xy 2 x + 2x xy 2 xy cos xy + 1

6 cos x sin2 x sin3 x + sin3 y + 1

n) y 0 =
6 cos y sin2 y sin3 x + sin3 y 1

c Hidegkuti, Powell, 2009 Last revised: May 21, 2011

Lecture Notes Implicit Dierentiation page 3

Sample Problems - Solutions

1. Find the equation of the tangent line drawn to the graph of 3x2 16xy 2y 2 + 3y = 178 at the point
( 3; 5).
Solution: We start with implicit dierentiation. We rst dierentiate both sides: Then we solve for y 0 .
3x2 16xy 2y 2 + 3y = 178
6x 16y 16xy 0 4yy 0 + 3y 0 = 0
16xy 0 4yy 0 + 3y 0 = 6x + 16y
y 0 ( 16x 4y + 3) = 6x + 16y
6x + 16y
y0 = compute y 0 when x = 3 and y = 5
16x 4y + 3
6 ( 3) + 16 (5)
y0 = =2
16 ( 3) 4 (5) + 3
The line must pass through ( 3; 5) and have slope 2.
y 5 = 2 (x + 3)
y = 2x + 6 + 5 = 2x + 11
Thus the answer is y = 2x + 11:
2. Consider the relation determined by the equation xy 2 5x = 2 y 2 + x2 y 16 . Find an equation for all
tangent line(s) drawn to the graph of the relation at x = 3.
Solution: We substitute x = 3 into the equation and solve for y.
3y 2 15 = 2 y 2 + 9y 16
2 2
3y 15 = 2y + 18y 32
2
y 18y + 17 = 0
(y 17) (y 1) = 0 =) y1 = 17 y2 = 1
Thus there are two points with tangent lines: (3; 17) and (3; 1).
For the slope of each tangent lines, we dierentiate both sides and solve for y 0 .
xy 2 5x = 2 y 2 + x2 y 16
2 0
y + x 2yy 5 = 2 2yy + 2xy + x2 y 0
0

y 2 + 2xyy 0 5 = 4yy 0 + 4xy + 2x2 y 0

y2 4xy 5 = 4yy 0 + 2x2 y 0 2xyy 0
y2 4xy 5 = y 0 4y + 2x2 2xy
y2 4xy 5
= y0
4y + 2x2 2xy
The slope of the tangent line drawn to (3; 17)
y 2 4xy 5 172 4 (3) (17) 5 80
m1 = 2
= 2 = = 5
4y + 2x 2xy 4 (17) + 2 (3) 2 (3) (17) 16
We can easily nd the equation of the line with slope 5; passing through (3; 17), it is
y = 5x + 32. The other tangent line, passing through (3; 1) has slope
y 2 4xy 5 12 4 (3) (1) 5 16
m2 = 2
= 2 = = 1
4y + 2x 2xy 4 (1) + 2 (3) 2 (3) (1) 16
Thus the slope is 1 and the equation of this line is y = x + 2.

c Hidegkuti, Powell, 2009 Last revised: May 21, 2011

Lecture Notes Implicit Dierentiation page 4

3. If y = f (x) is a function, we dene the curvature as

jy 00 j
C (x) = 3=2
1 + (y 0 )2
p
Prove that if f (x) = r2 x2 where r > 0; then the curvature is constant on the interval ( r; r).
Proof: Let us write y for f (x) : We can see that on ( r; r) y is always positive and that x2 + y 2 = r2

x2 + y 2 = r2 dierentiate both sides

0
2x + 2yy = 0
0 x
x + yy = 0 =) y 0 =
y
For the second derivative, y 00 we dierentiate both sides of the statement x + yy 0 = 0

x + yy 0 = 0
1 + y 0 y 0 + yy 00 = 0
2
1 + y0 + yy 00 = 0
2
x x2 y 2 x2
1 1
1 (y 0 )2 y y2 y2 x2 y 2 r2
y 00 = = = = = =
y y y y y3 y3
r2
Notice that since y is always positive, y 00 = is always negative. Thus jy 00 j = y 00 :
y3
r2 r2
jy 00 j y 00 y3 y3
C (x) = 3=2
= 3=2
= !3=2 = 3=2
1+ (y 0 )2 1+ (y 0 )2 x 2 x2
1+ 1+ 2
y y

r2 r2 r2
y3 y3 y3 1
= 3=2
= 3=2
= 3 =
y 2 + x2 r2 r r
y 3
y2 y2

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c Hidegkuti, Powell, 2009 Last revised: May 21, 2011