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Math 155 Lecture Notes Section 5,6

This document discusses indeterminate forms and L'Hôpital's Rule in the context of evaluating limits in calculus. It explains the concept of competing interests in limits that result in forms such as 0/0 and ∞/∞, and introduces additional indeterminate forms. The document also provides examples of limits that can be evaluated using L'Hôpital's Rule and other algebraic methods.

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4 views

Math 155 Lecture Notes Section 5,6

This document discusses indeterminate forms and L'Hôpital's Rule in the context of evaluating limits in calculus. It explains the concept of competing interests in limits that result in forms such as 0/0 and ∞/∞, and introduces additional indeterminate forms. The document also provides examples of limits that can be evaluated using L'Hôpital's Rule and other algebraic methods.

Uploaded by

lpclarke
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Math 155, Lecture Notes- Bonds Name____________

Section 5.6 Indeterminate Forms and L’Hôpital’s Rule


Back in Chapter 1 we applied algebraic methods for dealing with the following limits:
2x 2 − 2 3x 2 −1
lim and lim 2 .
x→−1 x +1 x→∞ 2x +1

0
In the first limit, if you “plugged-in” −1 for x you would get , and in the second limit if
0
∞
we “plugged-in” ∞ for x you would get . Of course, these “plug-in” methods are not
∞
0 ∞
legitimate and the corresponding results are not legitimate. However, both and are
0 ∞
called indeterminate forms. Both of these situations are examples of
competing/conflicting interests, or rules, and it’s not clear which will win out.
0
When we consider the limit with the form , we might think of a fraction that has a
0
numerator of zero as being zero, yet at the same time, we might think of fractions in which
the denominator is going to zero as a type of infinity, or that the limit might not exist. On
the other hand, we might think of a fraction in which the numerator and denominator are
the same and that the limit value is one. What is really going on? Can we understand
which interest will rule? Is it possible that the competing/conflicting interests will “cancel
out,” and the limit will reach some other value?
−∞
When we consider the indeterminate form , we run into similar issues. That is, when
∞
the numerator of a fraction is tending to negative infinity, we might think of the whole
fraction tending to negative infinity, yet if the denominator is going to infinity we might
think of the whole fraction as tending to zero. On the other hand, we might think of a
fraction in which the numerator and denominator are the same (discounting the minus
sign) and so we might believe that the limit is -1. What is really going on? Can we
understand which interest will rule?
−∞
When we consider the indeterminate forms like , we run into another problem in that
∞
infinity isn’t really a number, and we really shouldn’t even treat it like a number.
Frequently, we will find that it won’t behave as we would expect it to if it was a number.
In fact, this unpredictability is the mail problem with indeterminate forms. At first glance,
cannot tell what is happening in the limit. We will need to investigate each situation.
.

By the way, we will study five other types of indeterminate forms as well.
00 , 1∞ , ∞0 , ± ∞ ⋅ 0, and ∞ − ∞

Each of these indeterminate forms exhibit competing/conflicting interests, and it’s just not
clear which, if any, of the interests or rules will determine the value of the limit under
consideration. In addition to considering graphs of functions and tables of function values,
we will use L’Hôpital’s Rule to investigate the behaviors of indeterminate forms. At times,
some creative algebra will be employed to aid our study.
0 ±∞
This theorem tells us that when we consider an indeterminate form that is , or , we
0 ±∞
can differentiate the numerator, differentiate the denominator, and then consider the
resulting limit.

Ex.1 Evaluate: lim sin ( x − 2)


x→2 2x− 4
lim 10x +2 3x + 7
2
Ex.2 Evaluate:
x→∞ 2x −6

ln( x 4 )
Ex.3 Evaluate: lim
x→∞ x3
lim+ e (13 + x)
x−
Ex.4 Evaluate:
x→0 x
lim− 4 − x
2
Ex.5 Evaluate:
x→ 2 x−2
⎛1⎞
Ex.6 Evaluate: lim x⋅tan ⎜⎜⎜ ⎟⎟⎟
x→∞ ⎝ x ⎟⎠
⎡
Ex.7 Evaluate: lim ⎢⎢ 1 − 1 ⎤⎥
⎥
x→0 ⎢⎣ x sin ( x) x 2 ⎥⎦
1
x
Ex.8 Evaluate: lim x
x→∞
x
⎡ ⎛π ⎞⎤
Ex.9 Evaluate: lim+ ⎢⎢cos⎜⎜ − x⎟⎟⎟⎥⎥
x→0 ⎢ ⎜⎝ 2 ⎟⎠⎥
⎣ ⎦

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