Calculus 2 : Limits

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for Calculus 2

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Example Questions

Example Question #451 : Limits

Evaluate the 1-sided limits

 

 

 

Possible Answers:

1

Correct answer:

Explanation:

 

If we were to look at a plot of the function, the limit would be obvious. Drawing the graph would be difficult without a graphing device. We can overcome this by first defining a new variable and assessing how it behaves as the original variable approaches  from the right.  

 

Let,

 

 

Therefore,  as 

 

 

 

We notice that the function in terms of  has a graph that is much easier to draw from recollection since we readily know how the natural logarithm behaves. In the plot of the natural log, the y-axis is a horizontal asympote, and the function becomes infinite in the negative direction as  becomes arbitrarily close to 0 from the right. Hence  

 

 

 

 Calc problem 4 plot

 

The graph above is more familiar. This is not the graph of the original function , which is in terms of  The plot above represents the function defined in terms of the variable we defined, 

Example Question #407 : Finding Limits And One Sided Limits

One-Sided Limits

Find 

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

As  gets closer to 3 (but remains larger than 3), then  gets closer to 0 (but remains a small positive number).

The numerator, , gets closer to 6.

So,  is an arbitrarily large positive number. 

Thus, we conclude that the limit is .

Example Question #408 : Finding Limits And One Sided Limits

One-Sided Limits

Find 

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

As  gets closer to 3 (but remains smaller than 3), then  gets closer to 0 (but remains a small negative number).

The numerator, , gets closer to 6. So,  is an arbitrarily large negative number. 

Thus, we conclude that the limit is .

Example Question #411 : Finding Limits And One Sided Limits

Limits of Natural Log Functions

What is the limit of the following?

Possible Answers:

Does not exist.

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Recall the graph of a natural log function.

Loosely speaking, .

Graphing the function , is as follows and it is seen that as the function approaches three from the right hand side the function values approach negative infinity. 

Screen shot 2016 02 17 at 1.20.42 pm

Example Question #451 : Limits

Which graph is a possible sketch of the function  that possesses the following characteristics?

Possible Answers:

Graph4

Graph2

Graph1

There does not exist such a graph.

Graph3

Correct answer:

Graph4

Explanation:

Since the first derivative of  approaches  from both the left and right side of , the function should decrease on both sides of .

The only graph that is decreasing throughout is .

Graph4

Example Question #1 : Limits And Asymptotes

Find the vertical asymptotes of the function 

Possible Answers:

There are no vertical asymptotes.

Correct answer:

Explanation:

A vertical asymptote occurs at  when 

or .

In our case, since we have a quotient of functions, we need only check for values of  that make the denominator , but don't also make the numerator 



This equals  when  is an integer multiple of .

Hence the vertical lines  are vertical asymptotes.

However we must exclude the case , because this will also cause the numerator to be , thus creating a "hole" instead of an asymptote.

Hence our answer is

 

.

Example Question #1 : Limits And Asymptotes

What is the value of the limit of the function below: 

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

We note that for all , we have .

Hence,

 

By inverting the above inequality and multiplying by x. We get the following:

 

.

 

We know that,

and by the Squeeze Theorem,

we have:

Example Question #452 : Calculus Ii

How many vertical asymptotes does the following function have?

Possible Answers:

 

It does not have a vertical asymptote.

The function has infinitely many vertical asymptotes.

It has only one vertical asymptote.

Correct answer:

The function has infinitely many vertical asymptotes.

Explanation:

We first need to see that the function sin(x) has infinitely many roots.

We can express these roots in the following form:

, wkere k is an integer.

The function has the roots as asymptotes.

Therefore this function's vertical asymptotes are expresses by , where k is an integer. Since the integers are infinitely many, the vertical asymptotes are infinitely many.

Example Question #452 : Limits

Find the following limit:

  , where  is positive integer.

Possible Answers:

The limit does not exist.

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To find the above limit, we need to note the following.

We have for all n positive integers:

.

(We can verify this formula by the long division)

Now we need to note that:

, where .

We have then:

 

and we have

.

Since,

 

 

we obtain the following:

 

Example Question #2 : Limits And Asymptotes

How many asymptotes does the function below have: 

 is assumed to be a positive ineteger.

 

 

Possible Answers:

It has infinitely many

Correct answer:

Explanation:

We need to notice that the function f is defined for all real numbers.

We need to also remark that for all reals:

implies that

this gives again:

and therefore,

.

This function can't be 0.

Assume for a moment that

, this implies that but this cannot happen since we are dealing with real numbers.

Therefore the above function can never be 0 and this means that it does not have a vertical asymptote. This is what we needed to show.

 

 

 

 

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