SAT II Math II : SAT Subject Test in Math II

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for SAT II Math II

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Example Questions

Example Question #1 : Graphing Quadratic Functions And Conic Sections

A baseball is thrown upward from the top of a one hundred and fifty-foot-high building. The initial speed of the ball is forty-five miles per hour. The height of the ball after  seconds is modeled by the function

How high does the ball get (nearest foot)?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

A quadratic function such as  has a parabola as its graph. The high point of the parabola - the vertex - is what we are looking for.

The vertex of a function 

has as coordinates 

 .

 

The second coordinate is the height and we are looking for this quantity. Since , setting :

 seconds for the ball to reach the peak.

The height of the ball at this point is , which can be evaluated by substitution:

Round this to 182 feet.

Example Question #71 : Functions And Graphs

Give the -intercept(s) of the parabola of the equation

Possible Answers:

 and 

 and 

The parabola has no -intercept.

 and 

Correct answer:

 and 

Explanation:

Set  and solve for :

The terms have a GCF of 2, so

The trinomial in parentheses can be FOILed out by noting that  and :

And you can divide both sides by 3 to get rid of the coefficient:

Set each of the linear binomials to 0 and solve for :

or

The parabola has as its two intercepts the points  and .

 

Example Question #81 : Functions And Graphs

Give the amplitude of the graph of the function

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The amplitude of the graph of a sine function  is . Here, , so this is the amplitude.

Example Question #2 : Graphing Functions

Which of these functions has a graph with amplitude 4?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The functions in each of the choices take the form of a cosine function 

.

The graph of a cosine function in this form has amplitude . Therefore, for this function to have amplitude 4, . Of the five choices, only 

matches this description.

Example Question #2 : Graphing Trigonometric Functions

Which of these functions has a graph with amplitude  ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The functions in each of the choices take the form of a sine function 

.

The graph of a sine function in this form has amplitude . Therefore, for this function to have amplitude 4, . Of the five choices, only 

matches this description.

Example Question #4 : Graphing Trigonometric Functions

Which of the following sine functions has a graph with period of 7?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The period of the graph of a sine function , is , or .

Therefore, we solve for :

The correct choice is therefore .

Example Question #51 : Trigonometric Functions And Graphs

Which of the given functions has the greatest amplitude?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The amplitude of a function is the amount by which the graph of the function travels above and below its midline. When graphing a sine function, the value of the amplitude is equivalent to the value of the coefficient of the sine. Similarly, the coefficient associated with the x-value is related to the function's period. The largest coefficient associated with the sine in the provided functions is 2; therefore the correct answer is .

The amplitude is dictated by the coefficient of the trigonometric function. In this case, all of the other functions have a coefficient of one or one-half.

Example Question #1 : Graphing Piecewise And Recusive Functions

Define a function  as follows:

How many -intercept(s) does the graph of  have?

Possible Answers:

One 

None

Two

Three

Four

Correct answer:

None

Explanation:

To find the -coordinates of possible -intercepts, set each of the expressions in the definition equal to 0, making sure that the solution is on the interval on which  is so defined.

 on the interval 

 or 

However, neither value is in the interval , so neither is an -intercept.

 

 on the interval 

However, this value is not in the interval , so this is not an -intercept.

 

  on the interval 

However, this value is not in the interval , so this is not an -intercept.

 

 on the interval 

However, neither value is in the interval , so neither is an -intercept.

 

The graph of  has no -intercepts.

Example Question #2 : Graphing Piecewise And Recusive Functions

Define a function  as follows:

How many -intercept(s) does the graph of  have?

 

Possible Answers:

Three

Four

None

Two

One

Correct answer:

Two

Explanation:

To find the -coordinates of possible -intercepts, set each of the expressions in the definition equal to 0, making sure that the solution is on the interval on which  is so defined.

 

 on the interval 

However, this value is not in the interval , so this is not an -intercept.

 

 on the interval 

 or 

 is on the interval , so  is an -intercept. 

 

 

 on the interval 

 is on the interval , so  is an -intercept. 

 

  on the interval 

However, this value is not in the interval , so this is not an -intercept.

 

The graph has two -intercepts,  and .

Example Question #3 : Graphing Piecewise And Recusive Functions

Define function  as follows:

Give the -intercept of the graph of the function.

Possible Answers:

The graph does not have a -intercept.

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To find the -intercept, evaluate  using the definition of  on the interval that includes the value 0. Since 

on the interval  ,

evaluate:

The -intercept is .

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