University:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Course:
18.01 | Calculus
Academic year:

2010
Views:

307

Pages:

1
Author:

Callum Mason

Tangent Plane to a Level Surface 1. Find the tangent plane to the surface x2 + 2y 2 + 3z 2 = 36 at the point P = (1, 2, 3). Answer: In order to use gradients we introduce a new variable w = x2 + 2y 2 + 3z 2 . Our surface is then the the level surface w = 36. Therefore the normal to surface is Vw = U2x, 4y, 6z). At the point P we have Vw|P = U2, 8, 18). Using point normal form, the equation of the tangent plane is 2(x − 1) + 8(y − 2) + 18(z − 3) = 0, or equivalently 2x + 8y + 18z = 72. 2. Use gradients and level surfaces to ﬁnd the normal to the tangent plane of the graph of z = f (x, y) at P = (x0 , y0 , z0 ). Answer: Introduce the new variable w = f (x, y) − z. The graph of z = f (x, y) is just the level surface w = 0. We compute the normal to the surface to be Vw = Ufx , fy , −1). At the the point P the normal is Ufx (x0 , y0 ), fy (x0 , y0 ), −1), so the equation of the tangent plane is fx (x0 , y0 )(x − x0 ) + fy (x0 , y0 )(y − y0 ) − (z − z0 ) = 0. We can write this in a more compact form as (z − z0 ) = ∂f ∂x (x − x0 ) + 0 ∂f ∂y (y − y0 ), 0 which is exactly the formula we saw earlier for the tangent plane to a graph.

Tangent Plane to a Level Surface

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