Problem

For the function f(x,y)=5e4xsin(y), find a unit tangent vector to the level curve at the point (1,1) that has a positive x component. Present your answer with three decimal places of accuracy.

Answer

Expert–verified
Hide Steps
Answer

Evaluating this expression to three decimal places gives the unit tangent vector (0.196,0.981).

Steps

Step 1 :The level curve of a function f(x,y) is defined by f(x,y)=c for some constant c. The gradient of f is perpendicular to the level curve, so the tangent vector to the level curve is perpendicular to the gradient.

Step 2 :First, we need to find the gradient of f. The gradient is a vector whose components are the partial derivatives of f with respect to x and y. So we need to compute fx and fy.

Step 3 :The partial derivative of f with respect to x is fx=20e4xsin(y).

Step 4 :The partial derivative of f with respect to y is fy=5e4xcos(y).

Step 5 :So the gradient of f is f=(20e4xsin(y),5e4xcos(y)).

Step 6 :We evaluate the gradient at the point (1,1) to get f(1,1)=(20e4sin(1),5e4cos(1)).

Step 7 :The tangent vector to the level curve is perpendicular to the gradient. We can find a vector perpendicular to f(1,1) by swapping the components and negating one of them. We choose to negate the second component to ensure that the x component is positive.

Step 8 :So a vector perpendicular to f(1,1) is (5e4cos(1),20e4sin(1)).

Step 9 :We want a unit vector, so we need to normalize this vector. The length of the vector is (5e4cos(1))2+(20e4sin(1))2.

Step 10 :Dividing the vector by its length gives the unit vector (5e4cos(1)(5e4cos(1))2+(20e4sin(1))2,20e4sin(1)(5e4cos(1))2+(20e4sin(1))2).

Step 11 :Evaluating this expression to three decimal places gives the unit tangent vector (0.196,0.981).

link_gpt