2.

2 Lecture Notes
Brody Lynch
August 30, 2024

1 Intuition for a limit

As we saw in the previous section, we need a more formal way of saying “gets very close to”.
The following definition is still not completely formal (we will get to the details later) but
provides mathematical intuition for what we mean.

Definition 1.1 (Intuitive definition of a limit). Let f be a function that is defined on an

(open) interval around some number a. Then write lim f (x) = L and say “the limit of f as
x→a

x approaches a equals L”, if we can make the values of f arbitrarily close to L by restricting
the interval around a to be sufficiently small.

Remark 1.2. Note that in this definition, the computation of the limit only takes into
account what f (x) is around a, not what f (x) is when x = a.

sin x
Example 1.3. Here is the graph of the function f (x) = x
.

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 From the graph, we can tell that

lim f (x) = 1,
x→0

even though f (x) is not defined at x = 0 because the denominator is 0.

Example 1.4. Let 


x + 1 x ̸= 3

f (x) =

5
 x=3

This example is a little more contrived, but makes the same point. The limit only cares
about what is happening around 3, not at 3, so

lim f (x) = 4
x→3

even though f (3) = 5.

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2 When can limits fail to exist?

The limit of a function as it approaches a given x-value may not exist. Here are a few
examples in which the limit does not exist.

Example 2.1. 

x + 1 x ≥ 0

f (x) =

x + 3 x < 0


If we tried to take the limit as x goes to 0, we would run into a problem. Namely, from
the left-hand side of the graph, the function would approach 3 but from the right-hand side
of the graph, the function would approach 1. No matter how small an interval we take
around 0, we still have 3 on the left and 1 on the right. Therefore, we cannot pick a single
value for the limit so we say it does not exist.

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Example 2.2. Let f (x) = x2
and try to take the limit as x goes to 0. As we plug in smaller
and smaller x-values, f (x) keeps getting bigger, f (0.1) = 100, f (0.01) = 10000 and so on.

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The values of f (x) do not approach a number as x goes to 0 so we say the limit does not
exist.

π


Example 2.3. Let f (x) = sin x
and consider the limit as x goes to 0. When we plug in
some values we get

     
1 1 1
f =f =f = · · · = f (0.01) = · · · = 0,
2 4 6

but we also have

     
2 2 2
f =f =f = . . . = 1.
5 9 11

The function continues to oscillate faster and faster as it approaches 0, the value of the
function never approaches a single number.

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3 One-sided limits

To deal with cases like Example 2.1, we can define a “one-sided” limit.

Definition 3.1 (Intuitive definition of a one-sided limit). Let f be a function that is defined
on an open interval around some number (a, b). We write lim+ f (x) = L and say “the limit
x→a
of f as x approaches a from the right equals L”, if we can make the values of f arbitrarily
close to L by restricting the interval around (a, b) to be sufficiently small by changing b but
keeping a the same. We make the same definition for f defined on an open interval (b, a),
writing lim− f (x) = L and saying “the limit of f as x approaches a from the left equals L”.
x→a

Example 3.2. Compute the left-hand and right-hand limits of the following function as x

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approaches 0. 

x + 1 x ≥ 0

f (x) = .

x + 3 x < 0


This function from before did not have a limit as x approaches 0. However, it does have
one-sided limits.
lim f (x) = 3 and lim f (x) = 1.
x→0− x→0+

√
Example 3.3. Let f (x) = x − 1. Compute the right-hand limit of the f as x approaches
1. Why is there no left-hand limit?
There is no left hand limit because f (x) is undefined for x < 1. For x ≥ 1, we can see
from the graph that limx→1+ f (x) = 0.

Remark 3.4. The limit of f (x) as x approaches a exists if and only if the left-hand and
right-hand limits as x approaches a exist and are the same.

In the first example in this section, both one-sided limits existed, but they differed so the

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limit did not exist. In the second example, the left-handed limit did not exist so the limit
did not exist.

Example 3.5. (To be done in groups) Sketch a graph of a function f that satisfies all of
the given conditions.

(a)
lim f (x) = −1, lim+ f (x) = 2, f (0) = 0
x→0− x→0

(b)
lim f (x) = 1, lim− f (x) = −2, lim+ f (x) = 2, f (0) = −1, f (3) = 1
x→0 x→3 x→3

There are many possible graphs that meet these criteria!

4 Infinite limits, vertical asymtotes

To deal with cases like Example 2.2, we will write that

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lim = ∞.
x→0 x2

This does not mean the limit exists. The limit does not exist because it is not a number.
Saying the limit is infinity means that the value of the function gets larger than any finite
number as x approaches a.

Definition 4.1 (Intuitive definition of infinite limit). Let f be a function defined on an open
interval around a. We write
lim f (x) = ∞
x→a

if f (x) can be made arbitrarily large by taking values of x sufficiently close to a.

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Example 4.2.
x+3
lim = ∞.
x→0 x4

Example 4.3.
x+1 x+1
lim+ = ∞ and lim− = −∞
x→1 x−1 x→1 x−1

Definition 4.4. If the left-hand and right-hand limits of a function f (x) at a are both either
∞ or −∞, we say that f has a vertical asymtote at a.

5 Computing limits

Currently, we do not have any methods of computing limits beyond examining the graph or
calculating f (x) for many x values near a. These methods work, but are hardly algorithmic.
In the next section, we will learn better ways of computing limits.