• YOU can help the next generation of students in the community!
    Share your trial papers and notes on our Notes & Resources page

Limits (1 Viewer)

Lukybear

Active Member
Joined
May 6, 2008
Messages
1,466
Gender
Male
HSC
2010
Could some1 just explain to me when does a limit not exist? And how to prove it. I.e. lim *x>0* 1/x

In the book it says that as x>1 without restrictions from either below or above, lim f(x) does not exist.
 

kurt.physics

Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2007
Messages
840
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
Could some1 just explain to me when does a limit not exist? And how to prove it. I.e. lim *x>0* 1/x

In the book it says that as x>1 without restrictions from either below or above, lim f(x) does not exist.
Here is a website that has video tutorials about limits and calculus in general. It will really help with your question =)

Tutorials for the Calculus Phobe
 

Trebla

Administrator
Administrator
Joined
Feb 16, 2005
Messages
8,280
Gender
Male
HSC
2006
A limit exists if has a well defined value. (i.e. it converges to a finite number)
As x approaches 0, then 1/x gets larger and larger without bound (it can get as large as it wants and does not appear to converge to a finite number).
Therefore, the limit doesn't exist. You can sketch the curve y = 1/x to visualise this.
 

helpplease

New Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2009
Messages
11
Gender
Male
HSC
2011
check the graph of 1/x and you can see that there can not be a two sided limit as x approaches zero because the graph of the function are going to opposite directions. therefore it does not exist. hope this helps. it also helps to know how the graphs look like
 

Lukybear

Active Member
Joined
May 6, 2008
Messages
1,466
Gender
Male
HSC
2010
Another Question about limits:
Q: find the value of x where 0<|x-2|<x so that when x is restricted to this domain, the different between x^2 and 4 will be numerically smaller than a) 0.1 ... c) e where e>0

From the examples of this Q, to solve and find the answer that x-2 < e/5 and thus x = 0.02 etc... x was set less than 1 i.e.
1 < x <3 (as x approaches 2). Does this have to be the range?
 
Last edited:

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top