Practice Problems
Problems
1. Estimate the slope of each line in Figure 19.
3. Calculate the slope of the line through each pair of points:
e) ,
5. A small airplane at an altitude of 5000 feet is flying East at 300 feet per second (a bit over 200 miles per hour), and you are watching it with a small telescope as it passes
directly overhead. (Fig. 21)
a) What is the slope of the telescope 5, 10 and 20 seconds after the plane passes overhead?
b) What is the slope of the telescope t seconds after the plane passes overhead?
c) After it passes overhead, is the slope of the telescope increasing, decreasing, or staying the same?
7. The blocks in a city are all perfect squares. A friend gives you the following directions to a good restaurant; "go north
3 blocks, turn east and go 5 blocks, turn south and go 7 blocks, turn west and go 3 blocks". How far away (straight line distance) is the restaurant?
9. How far up a wall will a 20 foot long ladder reach if the bottom
must be at least 4 feet from the bottom of the wall? What will be the slope of the ladder if the bottom is 4 feet from the wall? What angle will the ladder make with the ground?
11. Let and . Verify that if , then the point with and is on the line from to and .
13. The lines and intersect at the point .
a) Use slopes to show that the lines are perpendicular.
b) Graph them together on your calculator using the "window" , . Why do the lines not appear to be perpendicular on the calculator display?
c) Find a suitable window for the graphs so the lines so that they do appear perpendicular.
15. Sketch each line which has and which goes through the point . Find the equation of each line.
17. Find the equation of each of the following lines.
a) goes through the point and is parallel to .
b) goes through the point and is perpendicular to .
c) goes through the point and is perpendicular to .
19. Find the shortest distance between the circles with centers and and radii
21. Explain how you can determine, without graphing, whether a given point is inside, on, or outside the circle with center and radius .
23. Show that the equation of the circle with center and radius is .
25. Find the slope of the line which is tangent to the circle with center at the point when
27.
a) How close does the line come to the point )?
b) How close does the line come to the point ?
c) How close does the circle with radius 3 and center at
come to the point ?
29.
a) Show that the line L given by has . (Fig. 23)
b) Find the equation of the line through which is perpendicular to line in part .
c) Show that the lines and intersect at the point
d) Show that the distance from the origin to the point in part is
Steps (a) – (d) show that the distance from the origin to the line is .