Precise definition of limits

 The phrases “x is close to a” and “f(x) gets closer

and closer to L” are vague.
 since f(x) can be arbitrarily close to
5 as long as x approaches 3 sufficiently.
 How close to 3 does x have to be so that f(x)
differs from 5 by less than 0.1?
 Solving the inequality |(2x-1)-5|<0.1, we get
|x-3|<0.05, i.e., we find a number d=0.05 such that
whenever |x-3|<d we have |f(x)-5|<0.1
e-d definition of a limit
 If we change the number 0.1 to other smaller
numbers, we can find other ds. Changing 0.1 to
any positive real number e, we have the following
 Definition: We say that the limit of f(x) as x

approaches a is L, and we write if

for any number e>0 there is a number d>0 such that
Remark
 e expresses “arbitrarily” and d expresses
“sufficiently”
 Generally d depends on e

 To prove a limit, finding d is the key point

 means that for every e>0 (no matter

how small e is) we can find d>0 such that if x lies in
the open interval (a-d,a+d) and xa then f(x) lies in
the open interval (L-e,L+e).
Example
Ex. Prove that
Sol. We solve the question in two steps.
1. Preliminary analysis of the problem (deriving a
value for d). Let e be a given positive number, we
want to find a number d such that

But |(4x-5)-7|=|4x-12|=4|x-3|, therefore we want

Example (cont.)
This suggests that we should choose d=e/4.
2. Proof (showing the above d works). Given e>0,
choose d=e/4. If 0<|x-3|<d, then
|(4x-5)-7|=|4x-12|=4|x-3|<4d=e.
Thus

Therefore, by definition we have

 Example
Ex. Prove that
Sol. 1. Deriving a value for d. Let e>0 be given, we
want to find a number d>0 such that

Since |(x2-x+2)-4|=|x-2||x+1|,if we can find a positive

constant C such that |x+1|<C, then |x-2||x+1|<C|x-2|
and we can make C|x-2|<e by taking |x-2|<e/C. As we
are only interested in values of x that are close to 2,
 Example (cont.)
it is reasonable to assume |x-2|<1. Then 1<x<3, so
2<x+1<4, and |x+1|<4. Thus we can choose C=4 for
the constant. But note that we have two restrictions on
|x-2|, namely, |x-2|<1 and |x-2|<e/C=e/4. To make sure
both of the two inequalities are satisfied, we take d to
be the smaller of 1 and e/4. The notation for this is
d=min{1,e/4}.
2. Showing above d works. Given e>0, let d=min{1,e/4}.
 Example (cont.)
If 0<|x-2|<d, then |x-2|<1) 1<x<3) |x+1|<4. We also
have |x-2|<e/4, so |(x2-x+2)-4|=|x-2||x+1|<e/4¢4=e. This
shows that

 d can be found by solving the inequality, but no

need to solve the inequality: d is not unique, finding
one is enough
 Example
Ex. Prove that
Sol. For any given e>0, we want to find a number d>0
such that

By rationalization of numerator,

If we first restrict x to |x-4|<1, then 3<x<5 and

Example (cont.)
Now we have and we can make
by taking Therefore
If e>0 is given, let
When 0<|x-4|<d, we have firstly

and then
This completes the proof.
Proof of uniqueness of limits
(uniqueness) If and then K=L.
Proof. Let e>0 be given, there is a number d1>0 such that
|f(x)-K|<e whenever 0<|x-a|<d1. On the other hand, there is
a number d2>0 such that |f(x)-L|<e whenever 0<|x-a|<d2.
Now put d=min{d1,d2} and x0=a+d/2. Then |f(x0)-K|<e
and |f(x0)-L|<e. Thus |K-L|=|(f(x0)-K)-(f(x0)-L)|·|f(x0)-K|+
|f(x0)-L|<2e. Since e is arbitrary, |K-L|<2e implies K=L.
e-d definition of one-sided limits
Definition: If for any number e>0 there is a number
d>0 such that

then
Definition: If for any number e>0 there is a number
d>0 such that

then
Useful notations
 9 means “there exist”, 8 means “for any”.
 e-d definition using notations , 

e > 0, d > 0, such that x : 0 | x - a | d ,

there holds | f ( x) - L | e .
M-d definition of infinite limits
Definition. means that
8 M>0, 9 d>0, such that
f ( x) > M whenever 0 | x - a | d .

 Remark. M represents “arbitrarily large”

Negative infinity
 means
Continuity
Definition A function f is continuous at a number a if
lim f ( x) = f (a).
xa

Remark The continuity of f at a requires three things:

1. f(a) is defined
2. The limit lim
x a
f ( x ) exists

3. The limit lim

x a
f ( x ) equals f(a)

otherwise, we say f is discontinuous at a.

Continuity of essential functions
Theorem The following types of functions are continuous
at every number in their domains:
polynomials algebraic functions power functions
trigonometric functions inverse trigonometric functions
exponential functions logarithmic functions
Example
1 2 x  x2   xn - n
Ex. Find the limits:(a) lim ( - 2 ) (b) lim .
x 1 x - 1 x -1 x 1 x -1
1 2 x 1- 2 x -1 1 1
Sol. (a) lim ( - 2 ) = lim 2 = lim 2 = lim = .
x 1 x - 1 x - 1 x1 x - 1 x1 x - 1 x1 x  1 2
x  x2   xn - n ( x - 1)  ( x 2 - 1)    ( x n - 1)
(b) lim = lim
x 1 x -1 x 1 x -1
= lim [1  ( x  1)    ( x n -1  x n -2    1)]
x 1

n(n  1)
= 1 2   n = .
2
Continuous on an interval
 A function f is continuous on an interval if
it is continuous at every number in the interval.
 If f is defined only on one side of an

endpoint of the interval, we understand

continuous at the endpoint to mean continuous
from the right or continuous from the left.
Continuity of composite functions
 Theorem If f is continuous at b and
lim g ( x) = b, then lim f ( g ( x)) = f (b).
x a x a

In other words, lim f ( g ( x)) = f (lim g ( x)).

x a x a

 If g is continuous at a and f is continuous at

g(a), then the composite function f(g(x)) is

continuous at a.
Property of continuous functions
 The Intermediate Value Theorem If f is
continuous on the closed interval [a,b] and let
N be any number between f(a) and f(b), where
f (a)  f (b). Then there exists a number c in
(a,b) such that f(c)=N.
Example
 The intermediate value theorem is often
used to locate roots of equations.
 Ex. Show that there is a root of the equation
4 x3 - 6 x 2  3x - 2 = 0
between 1 and 2.
 Sol. f(1)=-1<0, f(2)=12>0, there exists a
number c such that f(c)=0.
Limits at infinity
Definition lim f ( x) = L means for every e>0 there
x 

exists a number N>0 such that |f(x)-L|<e whenever

x>N.

lim f ( x) = L means 8e>0, 9 N>0, such that

x  -

|f(x)-L|<e whenever x<-N.

Properties
 All the properties for the limits as x! a hold true
for the limits as x!1 and x  -.
 Theorem If r>0 is a rational number, then
1
lim r = 0.
x  x

If r>0 is a rational number such that x r is defined for

all x, then 1
lim r = 0.
x - x
Examples
Ex. Find the limits
3x 2 - x - 2 lim ( x 2  1 - x)
(a) lim (b)
x  2
5x  4 x  1 x 

3x 2 - x - 2 3 -1/ x - 2 / x2 3
Sol. (a) lim = lim = .
x  5 x 2  4 x  1 x  5  4 / x  1 / x 2 5

1 1/ x
(b) lim ( x 2  1 - x) = lim = lim = 0.
x   x  
x 1  x
2 x  
11/ x 12
Horizontal asymptote
Definition The line y=L is called a horizontal asymptote if
either lim f ( x) = L or lim f ( x) = L
x  x  -

For instance, x-axis (y=0) is a horizontal asymptote of the

1
hyperbola y=1/x, since lim = 0.
x x

The other example, both y = - / 2 and y =  / 2

are horizontal asymptotes of y = arctan x.
Infinite limits at infinity
Definition lim f ( x ) =  means 8 M>0, 9 N>0, such
x 

that f(x)>M whenever x>N.

lim f ( x) = - means 8 M>0, 9 N>0, such that

x 

f(x)<-M whenever x>N.

Similarly, we can define lim =  and lim = -.

x- x-
Homework 3
 Section 2.4: 28, 36, 37, 43

 Section 2.5: 16, 20, 36, 38, 42

 Section 2.6: 24, 32, 43, 53

 Page 181: 1, 2, 3, 5, 7