Chapter 1.3 56. Find the limit if it exists.

lim
x 3

x 1 2 x 3

Solution: Since x 3 (otherwise the denominator would be zero), then 3 is not in the domain of the function. This means that we cannot substitute the value of 3 for x.

Lets rationalize the numerator by multiplying the function f x

x 1 2 by 1 in x 3

the form

x 1 4 x 1 2 x 1 2 x 1 2 to get lim and lim x 3 x 3 x 1 2 x 1 2 x3 x 3 x 1 2

this can be simplified to

lim

x 3 1 lim x 3 x 3 x 1 2 x3

1 1 x 1 2 4

Lets graph the function f x

x 1 2 to see what we observe around the points x 3

close to 3. Set the vertical window from -1 to 1 and the horizontal window from 2.5 to 3.5

x
2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 3 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4

Now lets narrow the windows again to horizontal 2.9 to 3.1 and vertical to 0 to 0.5.

x
2.92 2.94 2.96 2.98 3 3.02 3.04 3.06 3.08

As you zoom in on the point at three (empty circle because 3 is not in the domain of the function), the graph appears horizontal. The trace button shows that the y-values along this line are close to 0.25. The limit of the function is 0.25.