009A Sample Final 1, Problem 8

Let

$y=x^{3}$

a) Find the differential $dy$ of $y=x^{3}$ at $x=2$.

b) Use differentials to find an approximate value for $1.9^{3}$.

Foundations:

Solution:

(a)

Step 1:
First, we find the differential $dy$.
Since $y=x^{3}$, we have
Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle dy=3x^2dx} .

Step 2:
Now, we plug in $x=2$ into the differential from Step 1.
So, we get
$dy=3(2)^{2}dx=12dx$.

(b)

Step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3:

Final Answer:
(a) $dy=12dx$
(b)

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