1

Chapter-Two

Limit, Continuity and Differentiability

2.1.1 Introduction
Calculus is usually divided into two branches, differential calculus and integral calculus, partly
for historical reasons. The subject grew out of efforts in the seventeenth century to solve two
important geometric problems: finding tangent lines to curves (differential calculus) and
computing areas under curves (integral calculus). However, calculus is a broad subject with no
clear boundaries. The concept of a “limit” is the fundamental building block on which all
calculus concepts are based. In this section we will study limits.

2.1.2 Limits (An Intuitive Approach)

Limits are about how a function f behaves, as x approaches a number a. Does f ( x) get closer
and closer to a number L? If so, we say L is the limit of f ( x) as x approaches a. If not, we say
the limit does not exist. Limits play a key role throughout calculus. In this section, we discuss
their role in understanding rates of change.

Many of the ideas of calculus originated with the following two geometric problems:

THE TANGENT LINE PROBLEM: Given a function f and a point P( x0 , y0 ) on its graph,
find an equation of the line that is tangent to the graph at P (Figure 2.1.1).

THE AREA PROBLEM: Given a function f , find the area between the graph of f and an
interval [a, b] on the x-axis (Figure 2.1.2).

Figure-2.1.1 Figure-2.1.2

Traditionally, that portion of calculus arising from the tangent line problem is called
differential calculus and that arising from the area problem is called integral calculus.
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2.1.3 Tangent Line and Limits

The word tangent is derived from the Latin word tangens, which means “touching.” Thus a
tangent to a curve is a line that touches the curve. In plane geometry, a line is called tangent to
a circle if it meets the circle at precisely one point (Figure 2.1.3a). Although this definition is
adequate for circles, it is not appropriate for more general curves. For example, in Figure
2.1.3b, the line meets the curve exactly once but is obviously not what we would regard to be a
tangent line; and in Figure 2.1.3c, the line appears to be tangent to the curve, yet it intersects
the curve more than once.

Figure: 2.1.3a Figure: 2.1.3b Figure: 2.1.3c

To obtain a definition of a tangent line that applies to curves other than circles, we must view
tangent lines another way. For this purpose, suppose that we want to find the tangent line at a
point P on a curve in the xy -plane and that Q is any point that lies on the curve and is
different from P. The line through P and Q is called a secant line for the curve at P. Intuition
suggests that if we move the point Q along the curve toward P, then the secant line will rotate
toward a limiting position. The line in this limiting position is what we will consider to be the
tangent line at P (Figure 2.1.4a). As suggested by Figure 2.1.4b, this new concept of a tangent
line coincides with the traditional concept when applied to circles.

Figure: 2.1.4a Figure: 2.1.4b

Note: A secant line, from the Latin word secans, meaning cutting, is a line that cuts
(intersects) a curve more than once.
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Example-1 Find an equation of the tangent line to the parabola y  x at the point P(1, 1).
2

Solution If mtan be the slope of the tangent line at P( x1 , y1 ) , then, according to the point-slope
formula for a line, the equation of the tangent line is
( y  y1 )  mtan ( x  x1 ) …..(1)
To find the slope mtan , consider the secant line through P and a point Q( x, x ) on the parabola 2

that is distinct from P. The slope msec of this secant line is

x2 1
mPQ  msec  …..(2)
x 1
For instance, for the point Q(2, 4) , we have
4 1
mPQ  3
2 1
The following tables show the values of mPQ for several values of x close to 1.

The above tables and Figure suggests that if we now let Q move along the parabola, getting
closer and closer to P, then the limiting position of the secant line through P and Q will coincide
with that of the tangent line at P. This in turn suggests that the value of msec will get closer and
closer to the value of mtan as P moves toward Q along the curve. However, to say that Q( x, x 2 )
gets closer and closer to P(1, 1) is algebraically equivalent to saying that x gets closer and closer
to 1. Thus, the problem of finding mtan reduces to finding the “limiting value” of msec in equation
(2) as x gets closer and closer to 1 and, it appears from the tables, the closer is to 2. This
suggests that the slope of the tangent line should be mtan  2 .

So we can express that the slope of the tangent line is the limit of the slopes of the secant lines,
i.e.,
x2 1 ( x  1)( x  1)
mtan  lim mPQ  lim  lim  lim( x  1)  2 .
x 1 x 1 x 1 x 1 ( x  1) x 1

Thus from (1), we obtain the equation of tangent line at P(1, 1) , is

( y  1)  2( x  1) or, y  2 x  1 .
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2.1.4 Areas and Limits

For plane regions with straight-line boundaries, areas can often be calculated by subdividing
the region into rectangles or triangles and adding the areas of the constituent parts (Figure
2.1.4).

Figure: 2.1.5

However, for regions with curved boundaries, such as that in Figure 2.1.6a, a more general
approach is needed. One such approach is to begin by approximating the area of the region by
inscribing a number of rectangles of equal width under the curve and adding the areas of these
rectangles (Figure 2.1.6b). Intuition suggests that if we repeat that approximation process
using more and more rectangles, then the rectangles will tend to fill in the gaps under the
curve, and the approximations will get closer and closer to the exact area under the curve
(Figure 2.1.6c).

Figure: 2.1.6a Figure: 2.1.6b Figure: 2.1.6c

This suggests that we can define the area under the curve to be the limiting value of these
approximations. So the area under the curve is that once again the concept of a limit.

DEFINITION (Area Under a Curve): If the function f is continuous on [a, b] and if f ( x)  0

for all x in [a, b], then the area A under the curve y  f ( x) over the interval [a, b] is defined
by
n
A  lim
n 
 f ( x )x
i 1
*
i
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2.1.5 Decimals and Limits

Limits also arise in the familiar context of decimals. For example, the decimal expansion of the
fraction 1
9
is
1
 0.11111 ….(1)
9
in which the dots indicate that the digit 1 repeats indefinitely. Although you may not have
thought about decimals in this way, we can write (1) as
1
 0.11111  0.1  0.01  0.001  0.0001  0.00001   ….(2)
9
which is a sum with “infinitely many” terms. As we will discuss in more detail later, we
interpret (2) to mean that the succession of finite sums

0.1 , 0.1  0.01 , 0.1  0.01  0.001 , 0.1  0.01  0.001  0.0001 , 0.1  0.01  0.001  0.0001  0.00001 , 

gets closer and closer to a limiting value of 1

9
as more and more terms are included. Thus,
limits even occur in the familiar context of decimal representations of real numbers.

2.1.5 Velocity and Limits

When we speak of velocity, we usually mean instantaneous velocity, which indicates the speed
and direction of an object at a particular moment. The idea of instantaneous velocity makes
intuitive sense, but care is required to define it precisely.
Consider an object traveling in a straight line (linear motion). The average velocity over a
given time interval has a straightforward definition as the ratio

change in position
Average velocity 
length of time interval

For example, if an automobile travels 200 km in 4 hours, then its average velocity during this
4-hour period is 200/4 = 50 km/h. At any given moment, the automobile may be going faster
or slower than the average.
We cannot define instantaneous velocity as a ratio because we would have to divide by the
length of the time interval (which is zero). However, we should be able to estimate
instantaneous velocity by computing average velocity over successively smaller time intervals.
The guiding principle is: Average velocity over a very small time interval is very close to
instantaneous velocity. To explore this idea further, we introduce some notation.
The Greek letter  (delta) is commonly used to denote the change in a function or variable. If
s (t ) is the position of an object (distance from the origin) at time t and [t0 , t1 ] is a time interval,
we set
s  s (t1 )  s (t0 )  change in position
t  t1  t0  change in time (length of time interval)
The change in position s is also called the displacement, or net change in position. For
t1  t0 ,

s s (t1 )  s (t0 )
Average velocity over [t0 , t1 ]  
t t1  t0
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One type of motion we will study is the motion

of an object falling to earth under the influence
of gravity (assuming no air resistance). Galileo
discovered that if the object is released at time
t  0 from a state of rest (Figure 2), then the
distance traveled after t seconds is given by the
formula
s (t )  4.9t 2 m

Figure-2.1.7: Distance traveled by a falling

object after t seconds is s (t )  4.9t 2 meters.

Example-2 A hammer falls off a scaffolding at time t = 0. Estimate the instantaneous velocity at
t  0.8 s.
Solution We use Galileo’s formula s (t )  4.9t 2 to compute the average velocity over the five short
time intervals listed in Table 1. Consider the first interval [t0 , t1 ]  [0.8, 0.81] :

s  s(0.81)  s(0.8)  4.9(0.81) 2  4.9(0.8)2  3.2149  3.1360  0.7889 m

t  0.81  0.8  0.01s

The average velocity over [t0 , t1 ]  [0.8, 0.81] is the ratio

s s (0.81)  s (0.8) 0.07889

   7.889 m/s
t 0.81  0.8 0.01

The above Table shows the results of similar calculations for intervals of successively shorter
lengths. It looks like these average velocities are getting closer to 7.84 m/s as the length of the
time interval shrinks:
7.889, 7.8645, 7.8405, 7.84024, 7.840005
This suggests that 7.84 m/s is a good candidate for the instantaneous velocity at t = 0.8.

Conclusion: Average velocity converges to instantaneous velocity. Instantaneous velocity is

the limit of average velocity as the length of the time interval shrinks to zero. i.e.,
instantaneous velocity  lim(average velocity )
t  0
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2.1.6 Limits

Example-3 How does the function

x3  1
f ( x) 
x 1

behave near x  1 ? Also sketch the graph of the function.

x3  1
Solution Let’s investigate the behavior of the function defined by f ( x)  for values of x
x 1
near 1. The following table gives values of f ( x) for values x of close to 1 but not equal to 1.

x 0.0 0.5 0.7 0.9 0.99 0.999 0.9999 1 1.0001 1.001 1.01 1.1 1.3 1.5 2.0
f ( x) 1.0 1.75 2.19 2.71 2.97 2.997 2.9997 ? 3.0003 3.003 3.03 3.31 3.99 4.75 7.0

The given formula defines ƒ for all real numbers x except x  1 (we cannot divide by zero). For
any x  1 we can simplify the formula by factoring the numerator and canceling common
factors:
( x  1)( x 2  x  1)
f ( x)   ( x 2  x  1) for x  1.
( x  1)

The graph of ƒ is thus the parabola y  x 2  x  1 with

the point (1, 3) removed. This removed point is shown
as a “hole” in Figure 2.1.8. Even though f (1) is not
defined, it is clear that we can make the value of f ( x)
as close as we want to 3 by choosing x close enough to 1.
Using limit notation we can write
lim f ( x)  3 .
x 1 Figure-2.1.8: The limit of f ( x)
[This is read as "the limit of f ( x) as x approaches 1 is 3."] as x approaches 1 is 3.

Definition of Limits (An Informal View): If the values of f ( x) can be made as close as we
like to L by taking values of x sufficiently close to a (but not equal to a ), then we write

lim f ( x)  L
xa

which is read “the limit of f ( x) as x approaches a is L ” or “ f ( x) approaches L as x

approaches a .” The above expression can also be written as

f ( x)  L as x  a .
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Example-3 Use numerical evidence to make a conjecture about the value of

x 1
lim .
x 1
x 1

Solution Although the function

x 1
f ( x) 
x 1
is undefined at x  1 , this has no bearing on the limit. The following Table shows sample x-
values approaching 1 from the left side and from the right side. In both cases the
corresponding values of f ( x) , calculated to six decimal places, appear to get closer and closer
to 2, and hence we conjecture that
x 1
lim  2.
x 1
x 1

x 0.99 0.999 0.9999 0.9999 1 1.00001 1.0001 1.001 1.01

f ( x) 1.994987 1.9995 2.99995 2.999995 ? 2.000005 2.00005 2.0005 2.004988

This is consistent with the graph of f shown in Figure

2.1.9.

x9
Example-4 Let f ( x)  .
x 3
Figure-2.1.9: The limit of f ( x)
(i) Find lim f ( x) . as x approaches 1 is 2.
x 9

(ii) Sketch the graph of f ( x) and illustrate the limit in part (i) graphically.

Solution Try yourself.

2.1.7 One Sided Limits

The limit in lim f ( x)  L is called a two-sided limit because it requires the values of f ( x) to get
xa

closer and closer to L as values of x are taken from either side of x  a . However, some
functions exhibit different behaviors on the two sides of an x-value a , in which case it is
necessary to distinguish whether values of x near a are on the left side or on the right side of
a for purposes of investigating limiting behavior.
Example-5 The Heaviside function H is defined by

0 if t0
H (t )   .
1 if t0
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(i) Sketch the graph of H (t ) . (ii) Find lim H (t ) .

t 0

[Note: This function is named after the electrical engineer Oliver Heaviside (1850–1925) and can
be used to describe an electric current that is switched on at time t  0 .]
Solution (i) The graph of the Heaviside function

0 if t0
H (t )  
1 if t0
is shown in the right figure.
(ii) As t approaches 0 from the left, H (t ) approaches 0.

As t approaches 0 from the right, H (t ) approaches 1.

Figure-2.1.10: The Heaviside
There is no single number that H (t ) approaches as t
function
approaches 0.

Therefore lim H (t ) does not exist. (Ans.)

t 0

Left hand Limit: If the values of f ( x) can be made as close as we like to L by taking
values of x sufficiently close to a (but less than a ), then we write

lim f ( x)  L
x  a

which is read “the left hand limit of f ( x) as x approaches a from the left is L ” or “ f ( x)
approaches L as x approaches a from the left”.

Right hand Limit: If the values of f ( x) can be made as close as we like to L by taking
values of x sufficiently close to a (but greater than a ), then we write

lim f ( x)  L
x  a

which is read “the right hand limit of f ( x) as x approaches a from the right is L ” or “
f ( x) approaches L as x approaches a from the right”.

Existence of a Limit of a Function at a Point: The two-sided limit of a function f ( x ) exists at

a if and only if both of the one-sided limits exist at a and have the same value; that is,

lim f ( x)  L if and only if lim f ( x)  L  lim f ( x) .

xa xa xa

x x
Example-6 Prove that lim does not exist. Also verify this from the graph of f ( x)  .
x 0 x x

Solution Try yourself.