Name: Worksheet 2: Epsilon Delta limits, Continnuity, Limits at Infinity

Thoughts:

Epsilon Delta- This is a particularly hard topic for me to explain thoroughly. The best way is
via a picture.

What the epsilon delta definition of a limit approaching x0 is saying in terms of this picture is simply
L is our limit if for a chosen epsilon, delta exists where my interval on the x-axis gives values of x
where f (x) is within epsilon of L. This probably still makes your head hurt/spin and it probably
won’t stop. However, let’d make more sense of this with some examples. Let’s show this is true by
this definition.
lim 4x − 5 = 7
x→3

Let’s just plop this into our definition.

|x − 3| < δ, |(4x − 5) − 7| < .

Simplify and find our left inequality!


|(4x − 5) − 7| = |4x − 12| = 4|x − 3| <  ⇒ |x − 3| < .
4

If we take δ = we have proved this!
4
Let’s try another.
lim x2 = 9
x→3

Once again plop in.

|x − 3| < δ, |x2 − 9| < .

Let’s do some simplifying.

|x2 − 9| = |(x − 3)(x + 3)| < .

Thus, we need to bound the x + 3! Then we are home free! Since we are looking at x as we approach
3, in particular, x close to 3; let’s use a distance of 1 from 3! Therefore, |x + 3| < 7 for 2 ≤ x ≤ 4.
Delta with be smaller than this so we are ok! Over this interval, we also have |x − 3| < 1. Let’s see

1 Thomas Luckner
what happens when we use this.


|(x − 3)(x + 3)| < 7|x − 3| <  ⇒ |x − 3| < .
7

OR we can just use |x − 3| < 1. Thus, δ should be the smaller of the 2 of these. Namely,

δ = min{1, }.
7
THIS IS HARD! Please practice!

Continuity- We discussed this lightly in class, but we know a function is continuous at a if the
limit is the same as f (a). This brings up the idea of discontinuity. When we seek continuity we
are really looking for an x such that we do not have this condition! Examples include holes, piece-
wise functions, ’jumps’, and asymptotes. A nice property of continuous functions is that you can
move the limit inward for a cont. function. What does this mean? Let’s look at the function x2 .
This function is continuous for all x. Thus, any limit of this can be represented as the following:
lim x2 = (lim x)2 . This is possible as long as the function is continuous at the limit point! Try
looking at general sets of functions and seeing if they are continuous. For example: polynomials,
rational functions, complex functions, trig functions, inverse trig functions, etc. This brings us to
the big theorem here; The Intermediate Value Theorem!
If f is continuous on [a, b] and N between f (a) and f (b) not equal, then there is a c in (a, b) such
that f (c) = N .
We should always ask, so what? An example can tell you why this is valuable.
Show the following has a root.
4x3 − 6x2 + 3x − 2

Something, say c, is a root if f (c) = 0. The Intermediate Value Theorem is a picking something
bigger and something smaller than 0 means I have a c for which this is true since this polynomial is
continuous! To save time and computation, f (1) = −1 and f (2) = 12. Thus, somewhere between 1
and 2 there is a c for which f (c) = 0! Done! Notice we did not find the root, but we know it exists.

Inifinte limits- I talked about these briefly as an exercise in class. I mentioned that the big tech-
nique is to divide by the highest power of x in your function for rational functions. There are more
techniques such as multiplying by the conjugate and the dividing by largest power with respect to
a root. You do need to be careful!
I mentioned lightly in class that dividing by the highest power has a discrepency in math. In this
class it seems you will need to divide by the highest power in the denominator only. The idea is
the following:
x2
lim = lim x = ∞
x→∞ x x→∞

BUT if we do divide by x2 everywhere we get a 0 denominator which is undefined!

Lastly, if lim f (x) = L then y = L is a horizontal asymptote. i.e. draw a line here and the graph
x→±∞
of the function approaches this line in but does not touch it in the direction of infinity or negative
infinity accordingly.

2
1. Prove the following via epsilon delta:
2 + 4x
a. lim =2
x→13
b. lim x2 − 1 = 3
x→−2

c. lim x3 = 8
x→2

2. Determine if the function is continuous. If it is not, give all the discontinuous points.



 x+1 x≤1
1

a. 1<x<3


 x
√
 x−3 x≥3



 x+2 x<0

b. ex 0≤x≤1


2 − x x > 1


3. Prove the folllowing have a root on the interval given by IVT.

√
a. 3
x = 1 − x, (0,1)
b. sin(x) = x2 − x, (1,2)

4. Find the limits or show they do not exist ( ±∞ = DN E).

(2x2 + 1)2
a. lim
x→∞ (x − 1)2 (x2 + x)
√
9x6 − x
b. lim
x→∞ x3 + 1
p
c. lim x + x2 + 2x
x→−∞

5. Sketch the graph given the following: lim f (x) = ∞, lim f (x) = ∞, lim f (x) = −∞,
x→2 x→−2+ x→−2−
lim f (x) = 0, lim f (x) = 0, and f (0) = 0.
x→−∞ x→∞