Calculus Signature Assignment 1

The Mean Value Theorem

The mean value theorem states that if a function is continuous upon an interval [a,b]
and is differentiable (the derivative exists) in the interval (a,b), then it has at least one
number ​c​ that has a slope equal to the average slope of the whole interval.

(x+2)
The function f (x) = (x+5)
is continuous on the interval of [-3,7] because it only has one
asymptote at -5, which is outside the interval, and is differentiable on the interval of
3
(-3,7) because the derivative of f(x), f ′(x) = (x+5)2 , only has one asymptote at -5, which is

outside the interval.

The average slope of the interval [-3,7] can be found by plugging in the values to the
(7+2) (−3+2)
(7+5) − (−3+5)
slope formula as so: 7−(−3)
= 1/8 . Then we need to find the b of the slope intercept
(7+2)
equation by plugging 7 into f(x), which causes us to get f (7) = (7+5)
= 3/4 . When we
subtract the value when b would be 0 from our secant line equation so far, we get
3/4 − 7/8 =− 1/8 , which is our b. Thus the equation of the secant to the interval is
y = 18 x − 1/8 .

We can find where ​c​ exists by plugging c into f(x) and setting it equal to the slope of the
3 2​ 2
secant line: 1/8 = (c+5)2 . If we multiply both sides by (c+5)​ , we get 1/8 (c + 5) = 3 . Then

we multiply both sides by 8: (c + 5)2 = 24 . Then we take the square root of both sides:
(c + 5) =± √24 . Finally, we subtract 5 from both sides to see that c is equal to ± √24 − 5 ,
but we can drop the answer of − √24 − 5 because it is outside our interval, leaving us
with the answer of c = √24 − 5 = 2√6 − 5 ≈ − .1010205144 .

The equation of the tangent line at c (which is 2√6 − 5 ) can be found by plugging c into
(2√6−5+2) (2√6−3)
f(x), which gets us f (2√6 − 5) = (2√6−5+5)
= (2√6)
≈ 0.3876275643 . We can then plug this
into the slope formula to find that y − .3876 = (1/8)(x − 2√6 − 5) , which we can simplify
down to f (c) = 18 c +.4
The mean value theorem shows us that if a function is continuous and differentiable
upon an interval, it must be that there is a value within that interval with that slope. With
this graph, the green line indicates the point on the graph that has the same slope as
the red line, which runs through the endpoints of the interval.