Limits Updated.
Limits Updated.
College of Engineering
Lecture 02- Limits
Lecture Objectives:
At the end of this topic the students should be able to:
• Define limits and explain its properties,
The Limit
What is a Limit?
The limit of a function is the value that f(x) gets closer to as x approaches some number.
Example 1:
4
Let's look at the graph of 𝑓 (𝑥 ) = 3 𝑥 − 4, and examine points where x is "close" to x=6. We'll
start with points where x is less than 6.
Notice that as the x-values get closer to 6, the function values appear to be getting closer to
y=4. Now, lets look at points on the function where x is larger than 6.
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As before, the closer we got to x=6, the closer the function got to y=4.
Of course, since f(6)=4, this might not seem surprising. Nevertheless, this is the idea of a
limit, and it can be summed up this way:
As x gets closer to a particular number, what does the function get close to?
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Limit Notation
Mathematicians have a special notation to indicate they are working with limit values. For
example, the answer to Example 1 would be written like this:
lim 𝑓 (𝑥 ) = 𝐿
𝑥→𝑎
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Examples
Example 1: The Limit Exists
Whether x approaches a from the left or from the right , the function approaches L .
The limit as x approaches a does not exist because the function values are becoming
infinitely large as x gets closer to a.
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When the limit does not exist
Remember:
• This approach must be independent of direction
• The value that f(x) approaches must be finite. In our examples, the finite value was
always called L. On the other hand, Example 3 illustrates a situation that does not
satisfy this requirement of the basic definition of a limit because in example 3 there is
no finite value that f(x) approaches.
Solution
Notice that we did say estimate the value of the limit. Again, we are not going to directly
compute limits. The point of this section is to give us a better idea of how limits work and what
they can tell us about the function.
We will choose values of x that get closer and closer to x=2 and plug these values into the
function. Doing this gives the following table of values.
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Note that we made sure and picked values of x that were on both sides of x = 2 and that we
moved in very close to x = 2 to make sure that any trends that we might be seeing are in fact
correct.
Also notice that we can’t actually plug in x = 2 into the function as this would give us a
division by zero error. This is not a problem since the limit doesn’t care what is happening at
the point in question.
Your Answer
First, notice that there is a rather large open dot at x = 2 . This is there to remind us that the
function (and hence the graph) doesn’t exist at x = 2 .
As we were plugging in values of x into the function we are in effect moving along the graph
in towards the point as x = 2 . This is shown in the graph by the two arrows on the graph that
are moving in towards the point.
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When we are computing limits the question that we are really asking is what y value is our
graph approaching as we move in towards x = a on our graph. We are NOT asking what y
value the graph takes at the point in question. In other words, we are asking what the graph
is doing around the point x = a . In our case we can see that as x moves in towards 2 (from
both sides) the function is approaching y = 4 even though the function itself doesn’t even exist
at x = 2 .
Evaluating a Limits
Limits Properties
First, we will assume that 𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑥→𝑎 𝑓(𝑥) and 𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑥→𝑎 𝑔(𝑥) exist and that c is any constant. Then,
1.
2.
So, to take the limit of a sum or difference all we need to do is take the limit of the
individual parts and then put them back together with the appropriate sign. This is
also not limited to two functions. This fact will work no matter how many functions
we’ve got separated by “+” or “-”.
3.
We take the limits of products in the same way that we can take the limit of sums or
differences. Just take the limit of the pieces and then put them back together. Also, as
with sums or differences, this fact is not limited to just two functions.
4.
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As noted in the statement we only need to worry about the limit in the denominator
being zero when we do the limit of a quotient. If it were zero we would end up with a
division by zero error and we need to avoid that.
5.
, where is any real number
In this property n can be any real number (positive, negative, integer, fraction,
irrational, zero, etc.). In the case that n is an integer this rule can be thought of as an
extended case of 3.
6.
This is just a special case of the previous example.
In other words, the limit of a constant is just the constant. You should be able to
convince yourself of this by drawing the graph of f (x) = c .
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8.
As with the last one you should be able to convince yourself of this by drawing the
graph of
f (x) = x .
9.
This is really just a special case of property 5 using f (x) = x .
Indeterminate Limits
Example 1: Evaluate
Solution:
Step 1) Confirm the limit has an indeterminate form.
0
Since is an indeterminate form, the limit may (or may not) exist. We have
0
Step 2) Since the function is rational, we factor the numerator and denominator
to identify common factors.
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Answer:
Example 2: Evaluate
Solution:
Step 1) Confirm the limit has an indeterminate form.
0
Since is an indeterminate form, the limit may (or may not) exist. We have
0
more work to do.
Step 2) Since the function is rational, try factoring to find any common factors.
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Seatwork
Directions: Compute the following using limit properties.
Computing Limits
We saw that there is a large class of functions that allows us to use
to compute limits. However, there are also many limits for which this won’t work easily. I will
be introducing techniques for dealing with some of these limits.
Solution:
So, we can’t just plug in x = 2 to evaluate the limit. So, we’re going to have to do something
else.
The first thing that we should always do when evaluating limits is to simplify the function as
much as possible. In this case that means factoring both the numerator and denominator.
Doing this gives,
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So, upon factoring we saw that we could cancel an x − 2 from both the numerator and the
denominator. Upon doing this we now have a new rational expression that we can plug x = 2
into because we lost the division by zero problem. Therefore, the limit is,
Before leaving this example let’s discuss the fact that we couldn’t plug x = 2 into our original
limit but once we did the simplification we just plugged in x = 2 to get the answer. At first
glance this may appear to be a contradiction.
In the original limit we couldn’t plug in x = 2 because that gave us the 0/0 situation that we
couldn’t do anything with. Upon doing the simplification we can note that,
In other words, the two equations give identical values except at x = 2 and because limits are
only concerned with that is going on around the point x = 2 the limit of the two equations will
be equal.
More importantly, in the simplified version we get a “nice enough” equation and so what is
happening around x = 2 is identical to what is happening at x = 2 .
We can therefore take the limit of the simplified version simply by plugging in x = 2 even
though we couldn’t plug x = 2 into the original equation and the value of the limit of the
simplified equation will be the same as the limit of the original equation.
Note:
On a side note, the 0/0 we initially got in the previous example is called an indeterminate
form. This means that we don’t really know what it will be until we do some more work.
Typically, zero in the denominator means it’s undefined. However, that will only be true if the
numerator isn’t also zero. Also, zero in the numerator usually means that the fraction is zero,
unless the denominator is also zero. Likewise, anything divided by itself is 1, unless we’re
talking about zero.
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So, there are really three competing “rules” here and it’s not clear which one will win out. It’s
also possible that none of them will win out and we will get something totally different from
undefined, zero, or one. We might, for instance, get a value of 4 out of this, to pick a number
completely at random.
When simply evaluating an equation 0/0 is undefined. However, in take the limit, if we get
0/0 we can get a variety of answers and the only way to know which on is correct is to
actually compute the limit.
Seatwork
1.
2.
3.
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