Mathematics 41, section 1 -- Multivariable Calculus

Review Sheet for Exam

September 20, 1999

General Information

The first exam for the course will be given Friday, September 24, as announced in the course syllabus. It will cover the material we have discussed in class (including the discussions and labs) through and including the material on tangent vectors and tangent lines to parametric curves from class on Friday, September 17. The topics are:

  1. Coordinates in R3, subsets defined by coordinate equations, slices, etc.
  2. Vectors, the dot product, lengths and angles
  3. The cross product, equations of lines and planes
  4. Parametric curves and motion (know how to parametrize the line through a given point with a given direction vector, the circle in a plane with a given center and radius, and an ellipse with given center, major and minor axes),
  5. Tangent vectors and lines to parametric curves

There will be 3 or 4 problems, each with several parts. Some may ask for a graph or the result of a calculation; others may ask for a description or explanation of some phenomenon (similar to some questions from discussions and labs).

I will happy to schedule an evening or afternoon review session before the exam. Wednesday evening would be good.

Suggested Review Problems

From the text:

Sample Exam

I. Consider the set Q = {(x,y,z) : x2 - y2/4 + z2 = 1}. Identify the slices of Q in planes parallel to the three coordinate planes, and use that information to generate a rough sketch of Q.

II.

III. All parts of this problem refer to the parametric curve

alpha(t) = ((1+ cos(t))sin(t),-(1 + cos(t))cos(t))

(called a cardioid)