MA200 Further Mathematical Methods (Calculus) 2002/3 Answers to Exercises for Classes in Week 3

1. Plugging in a few values should suggest to you that the limit is likely to be 1. Sure, the evidence could equally support the suggestion that the limit is 0.999999999567, but mathematics isnt (usually) that nasty! You werent asked to explain this, but I hope you thought about it. I hope you didnt fall into the trap of arguing that ln(1 + 1/x) 0 as x , so x ln(1 + 1/x) 0. (See Q2 for why this is wrong.) Ways to get the right answer: look at the Taylor series expansion I gave in lectures, or use LH opitals Rule. 2. There are many possibilities in each case: these are perhaps the easiest. (a) f (x) = x2 , g (x) = 1/x; (b) f (x) = x, g (x) = 1/x2 ; (c) f (x) = 37x, g (x) = 1/x; (d) f (x) = x, g (x) = sin x/x. The idea of the question is of course to reinforce the fact that you cant draw any conclusions about limx f (x)g (x) from the facts that f (x) and g (x) 0 as x . 3. (a) Divide top and bottom by the largest power of x occurring, which is x3 , then the limit is equal to: lim 1/x + 1/x2 + 1/x3 limx 1/x + 1/x2 + 1/x3 0+0+0 = = = 0. 8 / 3 8 / 3 0+1+0 1/x + 1 + 1/x limx 1/x + 1 + 1/x

A common error is to think that some or all of the limx s are optional extras: not so. (See the remark at the end of Q5(b).) (b) Similar but slightly more subtle: divide top and bottom by x = x1/2 . Why: because, for large values of x, both top and bottom behave like x all we are doing is being careful about applying this insight. lim (x + sin x 2)1/2 (1 + sin x/x 2/x)1/2 11 / 2 = = lim = 1. x 1 + sin x/ x 2/ x 1 x + sin x 2

(c) Check that, when you evaluate the polynomials on both top and bottom at x = 2, you get 0. That means you can divide both polynomials by x 2 and get:
x 2

lim

(x 2)(x + 1) 3 x+1 = lim 2 = . 2 (x 2)(x + 2x + 2) x2 x + 2x + 2 10

At the end, we used the fact that the function (x + 1)/(x2 + 2x + 2) is continuous at any value x (e.g., x = 2) where x2 + 2x + 2 = 0, so the limit is equal to the function evaluated at 2. (d) This is the case where, at the value x = 2, the numerator is non-zero (22 21 = 1), x2 x 1 is either while the denominator is 0. What we know from this is that lim+ 3 x 2 x 2x 4

innity or minus innity. How do we tell which? A reliable way is to look at the sign of the function at values of x just above 2. Here for instance the numerator is close to 1, so certainly positive, while the denominator is (x 2)(x2 + 2x + 2), which is also positive. So the function is positive for these values of x, and so must tend to innity as x tends to 2 from above. A similar argument shows that the function tends to minus innity as x tends to 2 from below. The limit you are asked about doesnt exist. By the way, an alternative approach (here banned) would be to use LH opitals Rule for (a) and (c) here (or even (b), but it wont help much), but not (d) because the Rule doesnt apply. More on this next time. 4. (a) The function h(z ) = sin z/z is undened for those values of z such that sin z is negative; of course there are arbitrarily large such values. To say that lim h(z ) is equal to zero would mean that, for any > 0, |h(z )| < for all suciently large z . This is not true, so the limit isnt equal to zero, or indeed anything else. To say that limz h(z ) exists if sin z > 0, or some such, doesnt make sense, as limz h(z ) cant possibly depend in any way on the dummy variable z . The point of this question is that the argument f (z ) 0, therefore f (z ) 0 = 0 is wrong. (b) g (z ) = z (sin z + 1) does not tend to innity as z , since there are arbitrarily large values of z such that f (z ) = 0. The limit does not exist. 5. In (a), by denition, the derivative is: f (x) = lim 1/(x + h) 1/x x (x + h) 1 1 = lim = lim = 2, h 0 h0 hx(x + h) h0 x(x + h) h x
z

for x = 0. For (b), we have g (2) = lim ln(1 + h/2) ln(2 + h) ln 2 = lim . h0 h0 h h

Now stop and think: this is almost but not quite a limit we know about how can we transform it? The right idea is to substitute z = h/2 (note that h tending to zero is exactly the same as z tending to zero). So g (2) = lim ln(1 + z ) 1 ln(1 + z ) 1 1 = lim = 1= . z 0 2z 2 z 0 z 2 2

In setting out your answers here and elsewhere, its important to distinguish between (e.g.) 1/x(x+h) and limh0 (1/x(x+h)). The derivative f (x) is equal to the latter, not the former (which depends on h, so it cant be equal to f (x), which doesnt). Make sure that, whenever you use the symbol =, you intend to say that the thing on the left is equal to the thing on the right! (Abuse of the equals sign is one of my pet hates.) P.S. Sympathy if you found this tricky; no sympathy if you ended up with the wrong answer!