A Calculus problem by Maximos Stratis

Calculus Level 4

Let f : R R f: \mathbb {R\to R} be a two times differentiable function. If f ( 0 ) = 1 2 f(0)=\frac{1}{2} , f ( 0 ) = 1 4 f'(0)=-\frac{1}{4} , f ( x ) 0 f(x)\neq 0 and:

f ( x ) f ( x ) 2 ( f ( x ) ) 2 = e x f 3 ( x ) \large f(x)f''(x)-2(f'(x))^{2}=-e^{x}f^{3}(x)

Then, find f ( ln 3 ) f(\ln3) .

Notations: f f' and f f'' denote the first and second derivatives of f ( x ) f(x) respectively.


The answer is 0.25.

This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and, finally, (c) loading the non-javascript version of this page . We're sorry about the hassle.

1 solution

Maximos Stratis
Jun 4, 2017

We divide both sides of the equation with f 3 ( x ) f^{3}(x) :
f ( x ) f ( x ) 2 ( f ( x ) ) 2 f 3 ( x ) = e x \frac{f(x)f''(x)-2(f'(x))^{2}}{f^{3}(x)}=-e^{x}
Now we multiply the numerator and the denominator of the first side with f ( x ) f(x) :
f 2 ( x ) f ( x ) 2 f ( x ) ( f ( x ) ) 2 f 4 ( x ) = e x \frac{f^{2}(x)f''(x)-2f(x)(f'(x))^{2}}{f^{4}(x)}=-e^{x}
The LHS is the derivative of f ( x ) f 2 ( x ) \frac{f'(x)}{f^{2}(x)} and the RHS is the derivative of e x -e^{x} . Therefor:
f ( x ) f 2 ( x ) = e x + c 1 \frac{f'(x)}{f^{2}(x)}=-e^{x}+c_{1} , for some constant c 1 c_{1}
We substitute x = 0 x=0 and we find that c 1 = 0 c_{1}=0 . So:
f ( x ) f 2 ( x ) = e x \frac{f'(x)}{f^{2}(x)}=-e^{x}
The LHS is the derivative of 1 f ( x ) -\frac{1}{f(x)} and the RHS is the derivative of e x -e^{x} . Therefor:
1 f ( x ) = e x + c 2 -\frac{1}{f(x)}=-e^{x}+c_{2} , for some constant c 2 c_{2}
We substitute x = 0 x=0 and we find that c 2 = 1 c_{2}=-1 . So:
1 f ( x ) = e x + 1 \frac{1}{f(x)}=e^{x}+1\Rightarrow
f ( x ) = 1 e x + 1 f(x)=\frac{1}{e^{x}+1}
and f ( l n 3 ) = 1 e l n 3 + 1 = 1 4 = 0.25 f(ln3)=\frac{1}{e^{ln3}+1}=\frac{1}{4}=\boxed{0.25}


0 pending reports

×

Problem Loading...

Note Loading...

Set Loading...