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Lec 3 Cal 1
Lec 3 Cal 1
Limit of a function
Definition: A number A is said to be
the limit of the function f (x) as x a if
for all the values of x lying sufficiently
close to a the corresponding values of
the function f (x) are arbitrary close to
the number A. It can be written as
lim f ( x) A f ( x) A
x a xa
Definition: A number A is said to be
the limit of the function f (x) as x a if
for given any positive number
(however small), there is a positive
number such that for all x different
from a and satisfying the inequality
0 xa there holds the
inequality f ( x ) A
lim f ( x) A 0 0
In short xa
x : 0 x a f ( x) A
This definition is sufficiently rigorous
because the imprecise terms “arbitrary
close” and “sufficiently close” in the
previous definition have been replaced
by a precise statement using
inequalities.
Properties of limits
D Cx
1 1 1
Area BCO OC BC 1 tan x tan x
2 2 2
It follows that 1 1 1
sin x x tan x
2 2 2
or sin x x tan x
x
5) lim 1 ln a
a
x 0 x
ONE-SIDED LIMITS
Let us introduce the following notations:
x a 0 x a and x a
x a 0 x a and x a
f (a 0) lim f ( x) lim f ( x)
x a 0 x a
xa
f (a 0) lim f ( x) lim f ( x)
x a 0 x a
xa
Definition: The numbers (a 0)
f and
f (a are
0) called respectively the left-hand limit
and the right-hand limit provided that the
corresponding limits exist.
The computation of one-sided limits is greatly
facilitated by the following fact.
All the results about limits in previous sections,
such as the properties of limits, limits of
polynomial
xa functions remain validx if “a 0
” is replaced by either “ ” or
x a0
“ ”.
Theorem. lim x a
f ( x) A f (a 0) f (a 0)
and f ( a 0) f ( a 0) A
It means that if a function f (x) possesses a
limit as x a (i.e. x approaches in an
arbitrary way) the left-hand and the right-
hand limits also exist and coincide with the
limit of the function. Conversely, if one-sided
limits f (a 0and) f (aexist
0) and coincide then
the function has
f (x)the same limit A as x the
argument x approaches a arbitrary.
f (a 0) f (a 0) A