The Limit of a Function

Let’s investigate the behavior of the function

f defined by
f (x) = x2 – x + 2 for values of x near 2.

1
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.

2
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.

We express this by saying “the limit of the function

f (x) = x2 – x + 2 as x approaches 2 is equal to 4.”

The notation for this is

4
The Limit of a Function
In general, we use the following notation.

5
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.

6
The Limit of a Function
An alternative notation for

is f (x)  L as xa

which is usually read “f (x) approaches L as x approaches

a.”

Notice the phrase “but x  a” in the definition of limit. This

means that in finding the limit of f (x) as x approaches a, we
never consider x = a. In fact, f (x) need not even be defined
when x = a. The only thing that matters is how f is defined
near a.
7
The Limit of a Function
Figure 2 shows the graphs of three functions. Note that in
part (c), f (a) is not defined and in part (b), f (a)  L.

But in each case, regardless of what happens at a, it is true

that limxa f (x) = L.

in all three
cases Figure 2
8
Example 1

Guess the value of

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 limxa f (x) says that we consider values of x that are
close to a but not equal to a.

9
Example 1 – Solution cont’d

The tables below give values of f (x) (correct to six decimal

places) for values of x that approach 1 (but are not equal to
1).

On the basis of the values in the tables, we make the

guess that

10
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

13
One-Sided Limits
The function H is defined by

H (t) approaches 0 as t approaches 0 from the left and H (t)

approaches 1 as t approaches 0 from the right.

We indicate this situation symbolically by writing

and

14
One-Sided Limits
The notation t  0– indicates that we consider only values
of t that are less than 0.

Likewise, t  0+ indicates that we consider only values of t

that are greater than 0.

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One-Sided Limits

Notice that Definition 2 differs from Definition 1 only in that

we require x to be less than a.

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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

Thus the notation x  a+ means that we consider only x

greater than a. These definitions are illustrated in Figure 9.

Figure 9 17
One-Sided Limits
By comparing Definition 1 with the definitions of one-sided
limits, we see that the following is true.

18
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 limx2 g(x) does not exist.

20
Example 7 – Solution cont’d

The graph also shows that

and

(f) This time the left and right limits are the same and so, by

(3), we have

Despite this fact, notice that g(5)  2.

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Infinite Limits

22
Infinite Limits

Another notation for limxa f (x) =  is

f (x)   as xa

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Infinite Limits
Again, the symbol  is not a number, but the expression
limxa f (x) =  is often read as

“the limit of f (x), as x approaches a, is infinity”

or “f (x) becomes infinite as x approaches a”

or “f (x) increases without bound as x approaches a”

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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

The symbol limxa f (x) = –  can be read as “the limit of

f (x), as x approaches a, is negative infinity” or “f (x)
decreases without bound as x approaches a.” As an
example we have

27
Infinite Limits
Similar definitions can be given for the one-sided infinite
limits

remembering that x  a– means that we consider only

values of x that are less than a, and similarly x  a+ means
that we consider only x > a.

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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

there are potential vertical asymptotes where cos x = 0.

In fact, since cos x  0+ as x  ( /2)– and cos x  0– as
x  ( /2)+, whereas sin x is positive (near 1) when x is near
 /2, we have

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Example 10 – Solution cont’d

This shows that the line x =  /2 is a vertical asymptote.

Similar reasoning shows that the lines x =  /2 + n, where
n is an integer, are all vertical asymptotes of f (x) = tan x.

The graph in Figure 16 confirms this.

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:

Sum Law 1. The limit of a sum is the sum of the

limits.

Difference Law 2. The limit of a difference is the

difference of the limits.

Constant Multiple Law 3. The limit of a constant times a

function is the constant times the
limit of the function.

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Calculating Limits Using the Limit Laws
Product Law 4. The limit of a product is the product
of the limits.

Quotient Law 5. The limit of a quotient is the quotient

of the limits (provided that the limit of
the denominator is not 0).

For instance, if f (x) is close to L and g (x) is close to M, it is

reasonable to conclude that f (x) + g (x) is close to L + M.

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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

The graphs show that

and

Because the limit of the denominator

is 0, we can’t use Law 5.
Figure 1

The given limit does not exist because the denominator

approaches 0 while the numerator approaches a nonzero
number.

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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

In applying these six limit laws, we need to use two special

limits:

These limits are obvious from an intuitive point of view

(state them in words or draw graphs of y = c and y = x).
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Calculating Limits Using the Limit Laws
If we now put f (x) = x in Law 6 and use Law 8, we get
another useful special limit.

A similar limit holds for roots as follows.

More generally, we have the following law.

Root Law

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Calculating Limits Using the Limit Laws

Functions with the Direct Substitution Property are called

continuous at a.

In general, we have the following useful fact.

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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.

When computing one-sided limits, we use the fact that the

Limit Laws also hold for one-sided limits.

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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.

It says that if g (x) is squeezed between f (x) and h (x) near

a, and if f and h have the same limit L at a, then g is forced
to have the same limit L at a.

Figure 7
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