INTRODUCTORY MATHEMATICAL ANALYSIS

For Business, Economics, and the Life and Social Sciences

Chapter 10
Limits and Continuity

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Chapter 10: Limits and Continuity

Chapter Objectives
• To study limits and their basic properties.
• To study one-sided limits, infinite limits, and
limits at infinity.
• To study continuity and to find points of
discontinuity for a function.
• To develop techniques for solving nonlinear
inequalities.

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Chapter 10: Limits and Continuity

Chapter Outline
10.1) Limits
10.2) Limits (Continued)
10.3) Continuity
10.4) Continuity Applied to Inequalities

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Chapter 10: Limits and Continuity

10.1 Limits
• The limit of f(x) as x approaches a is the number L,
written as lim f x   L
x a

Example 1 – Estimating a Limit from a Graph

a. Estimate limx→1 f (x) from the graph.
Solution: lim f x   2
x 1

b. Estimate limx→1 f (x) from the graph.

lim f x   2
Solution: x 1

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Chapter 10: Limits and Continuity
10.1 Limits

Properties of Limits
1. lim f x   lim c  c where c is a constant
x a x a

2. x a
lim x n
 a n
for any positive integer n

3. lim
x a
f x   g x   lim f x   lim g x 
x a x a

4. lim
x a
f x   g x   lim f x   lim g x 
x a x a

5. lim
x a
cf x   c  lim f x 
x a

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Chapter 10: Limits and Continuity
10.1 Limits

Properties of Limits
f x  lim f x 
6. lim  x a
if lim g x   0
x a g x  lim g x  x a
x a

7. lim n f x   n lim f x 
x a x a

Example 3 – Applying Limit Properties 1 and 2

a. lim 7  7; lim 7  7
x 2 x  5

b. lim x 2  6 2  36
x 6

c. lim t 4   2  16
4
t 2

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Chapter 10: Limits and Continuity
10.1 Limits

Example 5 – Limit of a Polynomial Function

Find an expression for the polynomial function,
f x   c n x n  c n 1x n 1  ...  c1x  c0

Solution:

lim f x   lim c n x n  c n 1x n 1  ...  c1x  c0
x a x a

 c n lim x n  c n 1 lim x n 1  ...  c1 lim  lim c0
x a x a x a x a

 c n a n  c n 1a n 1  ...  c1a  c0

 f a 

where lim f x   f a 
x a

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Chapter 10: Limits and Continuity
10.1 Limits

Limits and Algebraic Manipulation

• If f (x) = g(x) for all x  a, then
lim f x   lim g x 
x a x a

Example 27 – Finding a Limit

x 1
Find lim
x 1 x  1
.
x2 1
Solution: lim  lim x  1  1  1  2
x  1 x  1 x  1

Example 9 – Finding a Limit

f x  h   f x 
If f x   x  1 ,find h0
2
lim .
h
 
Solution: lim f x  h   f x   lim x 2  2xh  h 2  1  x 2  1
h 0 h h 0 h
 lim2 x  h   2 x
h 0
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Chapter 10: Limits and Continuity

10.2 Limits (Continued)

Infinite Limits
1 1
• Infinite limits are written as lim    and lim  . 
x  0 x x  0 x

Example 1 – Infinite Limits

Find the limit (if it exists).
2 x2
a. lim b. lim 2
x  1 x  1 x 2 x  4

Solution:
a. The results are becoming arbitrarily large. The limit
does not exist.
b. The results are becoming arbitrarily large. The limit
does not exist.
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Chapter 10: Limits and Continuity
10.2 Limits (Continued)

Example 3 – Limits at Infinity

Find the limit (if it exists).
a. lim
4 b. lim 4  x 
x  x  5 3 x 

Solution:
4
a. xlim
  x  5 3
0 b. xlim

4  x  

Limits at Infinity for Rational Functions

• If f (x) is a rational function,
an x n and an x n
lim f x   lim lim f x   lim
x  x  b x m x   x   b x m
m m

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 Chapter 10: Limits and Continuity
10.2 Limits (Continued)

Example 5 – Limits at Infinity for Polynomial Functions

Find the limit (if it exists).


a. lim x 3  x 2  x  2  lim x 3
x  
 x  

Solution: xlim
 
x 3  x 2  x  2  lim x 3  
x  


b. lim  2 x 3  9 x  lim  2 x 3
x  
 x  

lim
Solution: x   2 x 3
 9 
x  lim
x  
 2 x 3


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Chapter 10: Limits and Continuity

10.3 Continuity
Definition
• f(x) is continuous if three conditions are met:
1. f x  exists
2. lim f x  exists
x a

3. lim f x   f a 
x a

Example 1 – Applying the Definition of Continuity

a. Show that f(x) = 5 is continuous at 7.
Solution: Since lim f x   lim 5  5, lim f x   5  f 7 .
x 7 x 7 x 7

b. Show that g(x) = x2 − 3 is continuous at −4.

lim
Solution: x 4 g x   lim
x  4
x 2
 
 3  g  4 
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Chapter 10: Limits and Continuity
10.3 Continuity

Example 3 – Discontinuities
a. When does a function have infinite
discontinuity?
Solution:
A function has infinite discontinuity at a when at least
one of the one-sided limits is either ∞ or −∞ as x →a.

 1 if x  0

b. Find discontinuity for f x    0 if x  0
 1 if x  0

Solution:
f is defined at x = 0 but limx→0 f (x) does not exist. f is
discontinuous at 0.
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Chapter 10: Limits and Continuity
10.3 Continuity

Example 5 – Locating Discontinuities in Case-Defined Functions

For each of the following functions, find all points of
discontinuity.
 x  6 if x  3
a. f x   
 x 2
if x  3

 x  2 if x  2
b. f x   
 x 2
if x  2

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Chapter 10: Limits and Continuity
10.3 Continuity
Example 5 – Locating Discontinuities in Case-Defined Functions

Solution:
a. We know that f(3) = 3 + 6 = 9. Because
lim f x   lim x  6   9 and lim f x   lim x 2  9 ,
  
x 3 x 3 x 3 x 3 
the function has no points of discontinuity.

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Chapter 10: Limits and Continuity
10.3 Continuity
Example 5 – Locating Discontinuities in Case-Defined Functions

Solution:
b. It is discontinuous at 2,
lim f x   lim x 2  4  lim x  2  lim f x 
x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2

limx→2 f (x) exists.

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Chapter 10: Limits and Continuity

10.4 Continuity Applied to Inequalities

Example 1 – Solving a Quadratic Inequality
Solve x 2
 3 x  10  0 .

Solution: Let f x   x 2
 3 x  10.

To find the real zeros of f,

x 2  3 x  10  0
x  2x  5  0
x  2, 5

Therefore, x2 − 3x − 10 > 0 on (−∞,−2)  (5,∞).

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Chapter 10: Limits and Continuity
10.4 Continuity Applied to Inequalities

Example 3 – Solving a Rational Function Inequality

x 2  6x  5
Solve  0.
x

x 2  6 x  5 x  1x  5 
Solution: Let f x    .
x x
The zeros are 1 and 5.
Consider the intervals: (−∞, 0) (0, 1) (1, 5) (5,∞)

Thus, f(x) ≥ 0 on (0, 1] and [5,∞).

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