Examples of limits of

functions of more tan one

variable
Mathematical Methods II
Examples
• Determine if the following limits exist or not. If they do exist give the
value of limit.
Example 1
• a)
• b)
• Solution:
• a)
• This function is continuous at the point in question and so all we need
to do is plug in the values and we’re done.
Solutions Example 1 (continued)

Solution b)
b)

In this case the function is not continuous along the line

Since we will get division by zero when this condition is satisfied.
However, we don’t worry about since the point we consider isn’t on the
line.
Solutions Example 1 (continued)
Solution b)
b)
All we need to do is to plug in the point since the function is continuous
at the point (5,1).
Example 2
Determine if the following limits exist or not. If they do exist give the
value of the limit.

Solution
In this case the function is not continuous at the point in question (we
get division by zero). However notice that we can factor both the
numerator and denominator
Example 2

Upon factoring and cancelling common factors, we get a function that

in fact we can take the limit by plugging in the values of the point.
Example 3
Determine if the following limits exist or not. If they do exist give the
value of the limit.
a)

b)
Example 3 (continued)
Solution:
a)

Having a look at the function, we notice that it isn’t continuous at the

point in question, unlike the previous we can’t factor the function and
do some canceling so that the limit can be taken
Example 3 (continued)
Solution:
a)

Let us see what happens along the x-axis. We are going to approach the
point (0,0) along the x-axis where we know that y=0 for all the points of
the x-axis. That means that we fix the value of y to be equal to zero.
Example 3 (continued)
Solution:
a) After fixing y=0 we get:

Let us try the y-axis, where x is zero. Therefore:

So, we get the same limit along two paths.

Example 3 (continued)
Solution:
a) Let us take a look along the path y=x. We will replace all the y’s
with x’s and then let x approach zero.

We get different values for three different paths this means that the
limit can’t possibly exist.
Example 3 (continued)
Solution:
b)

Again we have continuity problems at the point (0,0) and again

there is no factoring we can do.

Let us take a look along the path y=x. We will replace all the y’s with
x’s and then let x approach zero.
Example 3 (continued)
Solution:
b)

Let us take a look along the path . Along this path the limit becomes,

We have two paths that give different values for the

limit. So the limit doesn’t exist