Mathematics Example Problems

1. What is the distance between the points P (1, -3, 5) and Q (-3, 4, -2)?
(A) 10
(B) 14
(C) 8
(D) 114
2. What is the determinant of the following matrix?

3 2 7
3 7 1

1 5 2
(A) 113
(B) 7
(C) 12
(D) 73
Problem 3 is based on the following vector equations.
r
V1 = 3i + 2 j + k
r
V2 = 2i + 4 j + 6k
r
V1 = 2i + 3 j + 2k

3. What is the angle between V1 and V2?

(A) 35.5o
(B) 44.4o
(C) 45.6o
(D) 88.5o
4. If the rectangular coordinates of a point are (-3, -5.2), what are the polar coordinates
(r, ) of the point?
(A) (-6, 120o)
(B) (6, -120 o)
(C) (6,120 o)
(D) (6,-150 o)

5. Determine the (x,y) coordinates of the center of the circle defined by the following
equation.
x 2 8 x + y 2 10 y + 25 = 0
(A) (3,2)
(B) (3,4)
(C) (4,5)
(D) (5,4)
6. What is the longest side of the triangle defined by the following lines?
y = 2x 2
y = -2x + 3
y = 12x 7
(A) 1.20
(B) 1.68
(C) 1.73
(D) 2.58

7. In the following progression, what is the value of the term a?

125, 50, a, 8, 3.2
(A) 16
(B) 20
(C) 25
(D) 30
8. Matrix C is the product of the matrix multiplication AB. What is the size of matrix
B?
4
2
A=
3

7 0
0 2
1 3

1 1
(A) 3 x 3
(B) 3 x 4
(C) 4 x 3
(D) 4 x 4

1
2
C=
3

2 0 4
1 0 7
2 1 6

5 4 2

9. All three sides of a triangle are initially 4 m in length. One of the triangles sides is
oriented horizontally. The triangle is scaled down in size without changing any of the
angles. What is the new height of the triangle when the area is exactly half of the
original triangles area?
(A) 1.2 m
(B) 1.5 m
(C) 1.7 m
(D) 2.5 m

10. What conic section is described by the following equation?

4 x 2 y 2 + 8 x + 4 y = 15
(A) circle
(B) ellipse
(C) parabola
(D) hyperbola

11. What is the radius of a sphere with a center at the origin and that passes through the
point (8,1,6)?
(A) 10
(B) 65
(C) 101
(D) 100
12. What is cofactor matrix of the coefficient matrix for the following equations?
10x + 3y + 10z = 5
8x 2y + 9z = 5
8x + y 10z = 5

24
11 152

(A) 40 180 14
47 10 44
11 152 24
(B) 40 180 14
47
10
44

 8 8
29

(C) 20 20 34
7
170 4
8
8
29

(D) 20 20 34
7 170
4
13. Find the length of the resultant of the following vectors.
3i + 4j 5k
7i + 2j + 3k
-16i 14j + 2k
(A) 3
(B) 4
(C) 10
(D) 14
14. What is the value of ln(7.3891)xy?
(A) 2/xy
(B) 0.5xy
(C) 0.8686xy
(D) 2xy
15. Which of the following choices is closest to the rationalized form of the complex
number?
7 + j 5 .2
3 + j4
(A) 0.030 + j1.8
(B) 1.67-j0.5
(C) 2.33 + j1.2
(D) 2.33 + j1.3
16. What is the partial derivative with respect to x of the following function?
z = e xy
(A) e xy
e xy
(B)
x
e xy
(C)
y
(D) ye xy

17. What is the integral of the following equation?

15x4 8x3 + 1/x + 7
(A) 3x 5 2 x 4 + ln x + 7 x + C
1
+C
x2
1
(C) 60 x 4 24 x 3 2 + 7 x + C
x
15 5 8 4 1
(D)
x x 2 + 7x + C
4
3
x

(B) 60 x 3 24 x 2

18. What is the x-value for the absolute minimum for the equation y = 6x x3 in the
interval 3x3?
(A) 3
(B) - 2
(C) 0
(D) 3
19. If the function f(x) is a maximum at a point, which of the following must be true at
the point?
I.
II.
III.
IV.

df ( x )
<0
dx
df ( x )
=0
dx
d 2 f ( x)
>0
d 2x
d 2 f ( x)
<0
d 2x

(A) I and II
(B) II and III
(C) II and IV
(D) I and IV

20. What is the value of the following limit?

sin 5 x

lim
x0

(A) 0
(B) 0.087
(C) 1
(D) 5
21. A cloth bag contains six cards numbered 1 through 6. Two cards are drawn without
replacement. What is the probability that the sum of the numbers on the two drawn
cards is 7?
(A) 1/12
(B) 7/36
(C) 1/5
(D) 7/18
22. The scores of a final exam are distributed according to the table shown. What are the
approximate mode and arithmetic mean of the scores?
Frequency
Score
38
5
45
2
69
7
76
10
82
12
90
8
91
19
95
15
(A) mode 79, mean 73
(B) mode 82, mean 79
(C) mode 85, mean 85
(D) mode 91, mean 82

23. Two students are working independently on a problem. Their respective probabilities
of solving the problem are 1/3 and 3/4. What is the probability that at least one of
them will solve the problem?
(A) 1/2
(B) 5/8
(C) 2/3
(D) 5/6

24. What is the probability of picking an orange ball and a white ball out of a bag
containing seven orange balls, eight green balls, and two white balls?
(A) 0.071
(B) 0.10
(C) 0.36
(D) 0.53
25. What is the approximate probability that no two people in a group of seven have the
same birthday?
(A) 0.056
(B) 0.43
(C) 0.92
(D) 0.94
26. A bag contains 100 balls numbered 1 to 100. One ball is drawn from the bag. What
is the probability that the number on the ball selected will be odd or greater than 80?
(A) 0.1
(B) 0.5
(C) 0.6
(D) 0.7
Problems 27, 28, and 29 refer to the following:
Samples of aluminum alloy stiffness were tested for stiffness. The following
frequency distribution was obtained. The distribution is assumed to be normal.
Stiffness
2480
2440
2400
2360
2320

Frequency
23
35
40
33
21

27. What is the approximate mean of the population from the samples were taken?
(A) 2367
(B) 2398
(C) 2402
(D) 2419

28. What is the approximate standard deviation of the population from the samples were
taken?
(A) 19
(B) 23
(C) 37
(D) 51
29. What is the approximate probability that stiffness would be less than 2350 for any
given channel section?
(A) 0.08
(B) 0.16
(C) 0.23
(D) 0.36

30. When it is operating properly, a chemical plant has a daily production rate that is
normally distributed with a mean of 880 tons/day and a standard deviation of 21
tons/day. During an analysis period, the output is measured with random sampling on
50 consecutive days, and the mean output is found to be 871 tons/day. With a 95
percent confidence level, determine if the plant is operating properly.
(A) There is at least a 5 percent probability that the plant is operating
properly.
(B) There is at least a 95 percent probability that the plant is operating
properly.
(C) There is at least a 5 percent probability that the plant is not operating
properly.
(D) There is at least a 95 percent probability that the plant is not operating
properly.
31. Evaluate dy/dx for the following expression:
y = e x sin (2 x )
(A) e x [2 cos(2 x ) sin (2 x )]

(B) e x [2 sin (2 x ) + cos(2 x )]

(C) e x [2 sin (2 x ) + cos(2 x )]

(D) e x [2 cos(2 x ) cos(2 x )]

32. Determine the following indefinite integral:

x3 + x + 4
x 2 dx
4
x
+ ln x + C
4
x
x
(B) + log x 8 x + C
2
2
x
2
(C)
+ ln x 2 + C
2
x
2
x
4
(D)
+ ln x + C
2
x

(A)

33. What is the approximate area bounded by the curves y = 8 x2 and y = -2 + x2?
(A) 22.4
(B) 26.8
(C) 29.8
(D) 44.7
34. What is the approximate radius of curvature of the function f(x) at the point
(x,y)=(8,16)?
f ( x) = x 2 + 6 x 96
(A) 1.90 x 10-4
(B) 9.80
(C) 96.0
(D) 5340
35. A two-dimensional function, f(x,y), is defined as f ( x, y ) = 2 x 2 y 2 + 3 x y . What
is the gradient vector for this function?
(A) (2 x 2 + 3 x )i + ( y 2 y ) j
3 1
1

(B) x 3 + x 2 i + y 3 y 2 j
2 3
2

(C) (4 x + 3)i + ( 2 y 1) j
(D) (3 x + 4 )i (2 y + 1) j