Practice with Limits Using Graphs

December 19, 2004

Find the following limits using the graphs below. Solutions to these problems are on the last page.
y=fHxL y=gHxL
3 3
2 2
1 1
x x
-3 -2 -1 1 2 3 4 5 -3 -2 -1 1 2 3 4 5
-1 -1
-2 -2
-3 -3

1. limx→0+ f (x)g(x)
2. limx→0− f (x)g(x)
3. limx→−2 f (x) + g(x)
4. limx→1 f (x) + g(x)
5. limx→1 f (x)g(x)
6. limx→3− f (x) + g(x)

1
Solutions

1. −1

2. 1
3. 0
4. This limit does not exist. That is because

lim f (x) + g(x) = 0 + 1.5 = 1.5

x→1+

But
lim f (x) + g(x) = 0 + 0 = 0
x→1−

Because the left and right hand limits are not the same, the limit does not exist.
5. 0
Note that in this case, unlike the previous problem, the limit does exist. This is because

lim f (x)g(x) = 0(1.5) = 0

x→1+

and
lim f (x)g(x) = 0(0) = 0
x→1−

In this case the left and the right hand limits are the same, so the limit does exist, and is equal to zero.
6. ∞