Cag 5
Cag 5
Cag 5
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The Limit of a Function
The following table gives values of f (x) for values of x close
to 2 but not equal to 2.
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The Limit of a Function
From the table and the graph of f (a parabola) shown in
Figure 1 we see that the closer x is to 2 (on either side of
2), the closer f (x) is to 4.
Figure 1 3
The Limit of a Function
In fact, it appears that we can make the values of f (x) as
close as we like to 4 by taking x sufficiently close to 2.
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The Limit of a Function
In general, we use the following notation.
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This says that the values of f (x) approach L as x
approaches a. In other words, the values of f (x) tend to get
closer and closer to the number L as x gets closer and
closer to the number a (from either side of a) but x a.
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The Limit of a Function
An alternative notation for
is f (x) L as xa
in all three
cases Figure 2
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Example 1
Solution:
Notice that the function f (x) = (x – 1)(x2 – 1) is not defined
when x = 1, but that doesn’t matter because the definition
of limxa f (x) says that we consider values of x that are
close to a but not equal to a.
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Example 1 – Solution cont’d
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The Limit of a Function
Example 1 is illustrated by the graph of f in Figure 3.
Now let’s change f slightly by giving it the value 2 when
x = 1 and calling the resulting function g:
Figure 3
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The Limit of a Function
This new function g still has the same limit as x approaches
1. (See Figure 4.)
Figure 4
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One-Sided Limits
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One-Sided Limits
The function H is defined by
and
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One-Sided Limits
The notation t 0– indicates that we consider only values
of t that are less than 0.
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One-Sided Limits
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One-Sided Limits
Similarly, if we require that x be greater than a, we get “the
right-hand limit of f (x) as x approaches a is equal to L”
and we write
Figure 9 17
One-Sided Limits
By comparing Definition 1 with the definitions of one-sided
limits, we see that the following is true.
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Example 7
The graph of a function g is shown in Figure 10. Use it to
state the values (if they exist) of the following:
Figure 10
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Example 7 – Solution
From the graph we see that the values of g(x) approach 3
as x approaches 2 from the left, but they approach 1 as
x approaches 2 from the right.
Therefore
and
(c) Since the left and right limits are different, we conclude
from (3) that limx2 g(x) does not exist.
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Example 7 – Solution cont’d
and
(f) This time the left and right limits are the same and so, by
(3), we have
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Infinite Limits
f (x) as xa
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Infinite Limits
Again, the symbol is not a number, but the expression
limxa f (x) = is often read as
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Infinite Limits
This definition is illustrated graphically in Figure 12.
Figure 12
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Infinite Limits
A similar sort of limit, for functions that become large
negative as x gets close to a, is defined in Definition 5 and
is illustrated in Figure 13.
Figure 13
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Infinite Limits
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Infinite Limits
Similar definitions can be given for the one-sided infinite
limits
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Infinite Limits
Illustrations of these four cases are given in Figure 14.
Figure 14 29
Infinite Limits
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Example 10
Find the vertical asymptotes of f (x) = tan x.
Solution:
Because
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Example 10 – Solution cont’d
y = tan x
Figure 16 32
Calculating Limits Using the Limit Laws
In this section we use the following properties of limits,
called the Limit Laws, to calculate limits.
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Calculating Limits Using the Limit Laws
These five laws can be stated verbally as follows:
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Calculating Limits Using the Limit Laws
Product Law 4. The limit of a product is the product
of the limits.
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Example 1
Use the Limit Laws and the graphs of f and g in Figure 1 to
evaluate the following limits, if they exist.
Figure 1
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Example 1(a) – Solution
From the graphs of f and g we see that
and
Therefore we have
(by Limit
Law 1)
(by Limit
Law 3)
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Example 1(b) – Solution cont’d
We see that limx 1 f (x) = 2. But limx 1 g (x) does not exist
because the left and right limits are different:
So we can’t use Law 4 for the desired limit. But we can use
Law 4 for the one-sided limits:
The left and right limits aren’t equal, so limx 1 [f (x)g (x)]
does not exist.
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Example 1(c) – Solution cont’d
and
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Calculating Limits Using the Limit Laws
If we use the Product Law repeatedly with g(x) = f (x), we
obtain the following law.
Power Law
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Calculating Limits Using the Limit Laws
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Calculating Limits Using the Limit Laws
Some limits are best calculated by first finding the left- and
right-hand limits. The following theorem says that a
two-sided limit exists if and only if both of the one-sided
limits exist and are equal.
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Calculating Limits Using the Limit Laws
The next two theorems give two additional properties of limits.
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Calculating Limits Using the Limit Laws
The Squeeze Theorem, which is sometimes called the
Sandwich Theorem or the Pinching Theorem, is illustrated
by Figure 7.
Figure 7
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