Lecture 8

Limit of a function
Definition: A number A is said to be
the limit of the function f (x) as x  a if
for all the values of x lying sufficiently
close to a the corresponding values of
the function f (x) are arbitrary close to
the number A. It can be written as

lim f ( x)  A f ( x)  A
x a xa
Definition: A number A is said to be
the limit of the function f (x) as x  a if
for given any positive number

(however small), there is a positive
number  such that for all x different
from a and satisfying the inequality
0 xa  there holds the
inequality f ( x )  A  
lim f ( x)  A    0   0
In short xa
x : 0  x  a    f ( x)  A  
 This definition is sufficiently rigorous
because the imprecise terms “arbitrary
close” and “sufficiently close” in the
previous definition have been replaced
by a precise statement using
inequalities.
 Properties of limits

These are a number of facts that simplify the

computation of limits.
1. If f ( x)  C (C-constant) then lim f ( x)  C .
x a
2. If f ( x)  x then for every number a, lim x  a
x a
3. If g ( x)  f ( x)  h( x) and there exist
lim g ( x)  lim h( x)  A then lim f ( x)  A
x a x a x a

4. If lim f ( x)  A and lim g ( x)  B , then

x a x a
(a) lim ( f  g )( x)  lim  f ( x)  g ( x)  A  B
x a x a

(b) lim ( f  g )( x)  lim  f ( x)  g ( x)  A  B

x a x a

(c) lim ( fg )( x)  lim  f ( x) g ( x)  A  B

x a x a
(d) lim ( fg )( x)  lim  f ( x) g ( x)  A  B
x a x a

(e) lim f ( x)  A ( for f ( x)  0 for all x near a)

x a
5. If f (x) is a polynominal function, that
n n 1
is f ( x)  a0 x  a1 x  ...  a n ,
Then lim
x a
f ( x)  f (a ) for any real numbera.
6. Let f (x) be a rational function, that
is n n 1
a x  a x  ...  a
f ( x)  0 1 n
b0 x m  b1 x m1  ...  bm
and let a be a real number such that
f (ais) defined. Then lim f ( x)  f (a )
x a
  a0
b for n  m
n n 1  0
7. lim a0 x  a1 x  ...  a n
  for n  m
m m 1
x  b x
0  b1 x  ...  bm 0 for n  m


 Remarkable limits
sin x
Theorem: lim 1
x0 x

Proof. Consider a circle of unit radius

suppose that the control angle x

expressed in radians and 0  x  .
2
From the figure it is clear that
Area ACO  Areasec torACO  Area BCO
• We have
1 1 1
Area ACO  OC  AD   1  sin x  sin x
2 2 2 y
1 2 1 1
Areasec torACO  OC  AC   1  x  x A B
2 2 2

D Cx

1 1 1
Area BCO   OC  BC   1  tan x  tan x
2 2 2
It follows that 1 1 1
sin x  x  tan x
2 2 2

or sin x  x  tan x

Dividing all the terms of these inequalities

by sin x we get x 1
1 
sin x cos x
which can be written as
sin x
cos x  1
x
Since lim
x0
cos x  1 and lim 1  1 passing
x0
to the limit as x  0 we get, in
accordance with properties of limits,
the desired result:
sin x
lim 1
x0 x .
Many other limits can be computed
with the aid of this limit.
The limit sin x playing an
lim 1
x 0 x

important role in mathematics is called

the first remarkable limit.
Theorem:  1
x
lim 1    e
x   x
Many other limits can be computed
with the aid of this limit.
Examples: x
1) lim 1  k
  e k
x   x
kx
2) lim 1  1   e k
 
x   x
1
3) lim 1  x  x  e
x 0
1
4) lim ln(1  x)  lim 1 ln(1  x)  lim ln(1  x) x  ln e  1
x 0 x x 0 x x 0

x
5) lim  1  ln a
a
x 0 x
 ONE-SIDED LIMITS
Let us introduce the following notations:
x  a  0  x  a and x  a
x  a  0  x  a and x  a
f (a  0)  lim f ( x)  lim f ( x)
x a 0 x a
xa

f (a  0)  lim f ( x)  lim f ( x)
x a  0 x a
xa
Definition: The numbers (a  0)
f and
f (a are
0) called respectively the left-hand limit
and the right-hand limit provided that the
corresponding limits exist.
The computation of one-sided limits is greatly
facilitated by the following fact.
All the results about limits in previous sections,
such as the properties of limits, limits of
polynomial
xa functions remain validx if “a  0
” is replaced by either “ ” or
x  a0
“ ”.
Theorem.  lim x a
f ( x)  A  f (a  0) f (a  0)
and f ( a  0)  f ( a  0)  A
It means that if a function f (x) possesses a
limit as x  a (i.e. x approaches in an
arbitrary way) the left-hand and the right-
hand limits also exist and coincide with the
limit of the function. Conversely, if one-sided
limits f (a  0and) f (aexist
 0) and coincide then
the function has
f (x)the same limit A as x the
argument x approaches a arbitrary.
f (a  0)  f (a  0)  A