Angel D.

asked • 06/17/22

Plz help line tangent

Suppose the line tangent to the graph of f at x=3 is y=4x+2 and suppose y=5x-5 is the line tangent to the graph of g at x=3. Find an equation of the line tangent to the following curves at x=3.

a. y=f(x)+g(x) at x=3

y=?

b. y=f(x)-4g(x) at x=3

y=?

c. 4f(x) at x=3

y=?



2 Answers By Expert Tutors

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Julia S. answered • 06/17/22

Tutor
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Roger R.

tutor
Hi Julia, The way you derive the tangent line does indeed work, but not for the reasons you give: The statement "The tangent line of a graph is the derivative of the parent function of that graph." is misleading at best. To tease you: 1) The graph of a function can have different tangent lines at different points x = x_0, but your "parent function" has only one derivative. 2) A straight line through the point (3,14) can be tangent to different graphs. 3) Why would you bother to calculate the constant term c? It is immediately annihilated when you take the derivative! 4) How would you use your method to find the tangent line to the function h(x) = f(x)g(x) at x = 3?
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06/17/22

Julia S.

Hi Roger! I think you make great points, and my explanation is not perfect. 1) Since the problem explicitly looks at tangents about x = 3, I didn't feel it necessary to specify that the tangents we're looking at are exclusive to x = 3. However, I probably should have. Hopefully at this point in the course, students know that tangent lines change - that's how critical points happen! 2) While it can be tangent to different graphs, I use the point because of how the tangent line at that point is calculated/drawn: (3,14) is guaranteed to correspond to our parent graph at x = 3, regardless. 3) The constant is definitely not necessary, I did get carried away there. However, while calculating c is a bit of a mental dead end, it will not change the accuracy of the answer. 4) To calculate your example, plug in x = 3 for f(x) and g(x) and take the product to get the y coordinate of that function at x = 3. From there, you can simplify the product of functions and derive, plugging in x = 3 again to get the slope. Plug into point slope form and simplify. Use the point again to solve for the y-intercept of the equation. I hope this explains a little bit about how I thought it through. :-)
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06/17/22

Roger R.

tutor
@ Julia I'm still not happy. The way you explain point 4) is correct, but: If I understand your method correctly, you try to find a function f whose graph y = f(x) has the tangent line y = 4x +2 at x = 3. But the function f(x) = 2x^2 +2x +c has the slope f'(3) = 4(3) +2 = 14 instead of m = 4. If you want a working f, take f(x) = 4x +2: A straight line is tangent to itself. It's worthwhile to contemplate why your method gives the correct answers to the problems presented, but not in general.
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06/17/22

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