VCAA Mathematical Methods Algebra, number and structure
15 sample questions with marking guides and sample answers · Avg. score: 64.7%
Question 14
The displacement in metres, , of a power boat seconds after it was launched is given by:
How far has the power boat travelled before its acceleration is zero?
Reveal Answer
| Descriptor | Marks |
|---|---|
determines an expression for velocity | 1 |
determines an expression for acceleration | 1 |
equates acceleration to zero and determines | 1 |
shows integration expression for distance travelled | 1 |
determines how far the power boat has travelled | 1 |
Consider the function with domain .
The inverse of is
with domain
with domain
with domain
with domain
Reveal Answer
with domain
Incorrect. Although the algebraic expression for the inverse is correct, the domain of the inverse function must exclude to avoid division by zero, not .
with domain
Correct. Swapping and and solving for gives , which can be rewritten as . The domain correctly excludes to prevent division by zero.
with domain
Incorrect. Simplifying this expression yields , which does not match the correct inverse function .
with domain
Incorrect. This expression has the wrong sign in the numerator. The correct inverse function is .
Solve for .
Reveal Answer
| Descriptor | Marks |
|---|---|
Expresses as and equates the exponents, e.g., | 1 |
Solves for to find the correct answer, | 1 |
Find the maximal domain of , where .
Reveal Answer
Maximal domain when
From NFL and
| Descriptor | Marks |
|---|---|
Identifies that the argument of the logarithm must be strictly positive, | 1 |
Factorises the quadratic expression or finds the critical values, e.g., | 1 |
States the correct maximal domain using union notation, | 1 |
The graphs of the functions and intersect at point A. Determine the coordinates of point A.
(1.609, 15)
(1.099, 1)
(0.4065, 2)
(-0.693, 6)
Reveal Answer
(1.609, 15)
Incorrect. While this point lies on the graph of (since gives ), . The intersection point must satisfy both equations.
(1.099, 1)
Incorrect. This point lies on the graph of (since gives ), but . The functions are not equal at this x-value.
(0.4065, 2)
Incorrect. This point lies on the graph of (since gives ), but . The y-values differ significantly.
(-0.693, 6)
Correct. Set and multiply by to get the quadratic . Factoring gives . Since , , which yields and .
A horizontal point of inflection is a point of inflection that is also a stationary point.
Determine the value/s of for which the graph of has only one horizontal point of inflection.
Reveal Answer
Stationary points
(i)
The quadratic has real roots when discriminant
There is only ONE phi
(not valid)
and so
Sub into (i) to determine the x-ordinate of the stationary point.
For
For
For each value, is the x-ordinate of both a stationary point () and a point of inflection ()
There is a point of horizontal inflection at when
| Descriptor | Marks |
|---|---|
correctly determines the first derivative | 1 |
correctly determines the quadratic equation to identify the stationary point/s | 1 |
determines valid and non-valid solutions of k | 1 |
determines x-ordinate of stationary point | 1 |
determines values of second derivative for both values of k | 1 |
shows logical organisation communicating key steps | 1 |
Consider the system of equations below containing the parameter , where .
Find the value(s) of for which this system has no real solutions.
only
only
or
Reveal Answer
only
Setting the ratios of the and coefficients equal gives and . For , the ratio of the constants is different from the coefficient ratio, resulting in parallel lines and no solution.
only
When , the ratio of the constants equals the ratio of the coefficients, meaning the lines are coincident and the system has infinitely many solutions, not zero.
or
While both values make the lines parallel, makes the lines coincident (infinitely many solutions). Only makes them distinct and parallel (no solutions).
For all values of other than and , the lines have different slopes and intersect at exactly one point, yielding a unique solution rather than no solution.
Solve for in the equation .
Reveal Answer
not possible
| Descriptor | Marks |
|---|---|
Correctly removes the negative index in the equation | 1 |
Rearranges equation to equate to zero | 1 |
Factorises the equation | 1 |
Rejects the non-feasible solution | 1 |
Determines a feasible solution for x | 1 |
Determine all possible solutions for the equation .
Evaluate the reasonableness of one solution.
Reveal Answer
Let
Solving this gives .
Substitute into the original equation to evaluate its reasonableness.
Therefore, is a reasonable solution.
| Descriptor | Marks |
|---|---|
correctly applies an appropriate logarithmic law to convert the term to a term in | 1 |
realises the need to solve a quadratic equation | 1 |
determines a solution | 1 |
determines a second solution | 1 |
substitutes the chosen solution into the equation | 1 |
evaluates the reasonableness of one possible solution | 1 |
Consider the functions and .
The range of the composite function is
Reveal Answer
This incorrectly assumes the minimum of occurs at the boundary (giving ), missing the true minimum at the vertex .
This incorrectly uses as the minimum value of the inner function, failing to account for the vertex of the parabola at .
The maximum value is achieved at , which is included in the domain , so the interval must be closed at .
The range of on is . Applying the strictly decreasing function to this range yields .
Solve for .
Reveal Answer
| Descriptor | Marks |
|---|---|
Factorises the equation correctly | 1 |
Solves for correctly | 1 |
Let , where .
The function has exactly one stationary point, a local minimum.
Find the largest value of such that when is restricted to the domain it has an inverse function.
Reveal Answer
Find turning point -value
As
So .
| Descriptor | Marks |
|---|---|
Finds the derivative and sets to 0 | 1 |
Solves for correctly | 1 |
A box is formed from a rectangular sheet of cardboard, which has a width of units and a length of units, by first cutting out squares of side length units from each corner and then folding upwards to form a container with an open top.
The maximum volume of the box occurs when is equal to
Reveal Answer
This formula is incorrect. It does not match the roots of the derivative of the volume function, .
While this is a root of the derivative , it corresponds to the local minimum of the volume function and falls outside the valid domain .
This formula is incorrect. It does not match the roots of the derivative of the volume function, .
The volume is . Setting the derivative to and solving with the quadratic formula yields this expression as the only root within the valid domain.
This option has an incorrect discriminant. The term under the square root should be , which comes from simplifying the discriminant of the quadratic equation .
Consider the system of simultaneous linear equations below containing the parameter .
The value(s) of for which the system of equations has infinite solutions are
Reveal Answer
While does yield infinite solutions, substituting creates the equations and , which are parallel lines with no solutions.
For a system to have infinite solutions, the equations must be proportional. Substituting yields and , which simplify to the exact same line ().
Substituting results in the equations and . These represent parallel lines that never intersect, meaning the system has zero solutions.
Values of other than and make the determinant of the coefficient matrix non-zero (), which means the system will have exactly one unique solution.
This set includes values that yield a single unique solution (any other than or ) and no solutions (), rather than infinite solutions.
Let , where . When is divided by , the remainder is 5.
The value of is
2
Reveal Answer
2
This results from a sign error when solving the equation , incorrectly yielding instead of .
This value stems from an arithmetic error when evaluating the polynomial at .
This results from incorrectly applying the Remainder Theorem by evaluating instead of .
This value comes from an arithmetic error, such as incorrectly evaluating the linear and constant terms of .
By the Remainder Theorem, . Substituting gives , which simplifies to , yielding .
The largest value of such that the function , where is one-to-one, is
Reveal Answer
This is the y-coordinate of the vertex (the minimum value of the function), not the x-coordinate required for the domain.
This is one of the roots of the quadratic equation (), not the x-coordinate of the vertex that determines where the function changes direction.
A quadratic function is one-to-one on an interval ending at its vertex. The x-coordinate of the vertex is found using .
The interval includes the vertex at , meaning the function decreases and then increases within this domain, so it is not one-to-one.
This is the other root of the quadratic equation (). The interval includes the vertex, so the function is not one-to-one.
Let .
Let where .
The largest interval of values for which and both exist is
Reveal Answer
The domain of requires , giving . The domain of requires . The intersection of these conditions yields the largest valid interval .
This interval is closed at , but is undefined because it requires taking the natural logarithm of zero.
While this interval satisfies the domain of , it includes values between and where is undefined.
This interval includes values where is undefined, and the closed endpoints would result in taking the logarithm of zero or a negative number.
This interval contains values where is undefined, as the domain of strictly requires .