GRE Subject Test: Math : Limits

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for GRE Subject Test: Math

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Example Questions

Example Question #1 : L'hospital's Rule

Calculate the following limit.

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

If we plugged in the integration limit to the expression in the problem we would get , which is undefined. Here we use L'Hopital's rule, which is shown below.

This gives us, 

.

However, even with this simplified limit, we still get . So what do we do? We do L'Hopital's again!

.

Now if we plug in infitinity, we get 0. 

Example Question #7 : L'hospital's Rule

Calculate the following limit.

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

If we plugged in  directly, we would get an indeterminate value of .

We can use L'Hopital's rule to fix this. We take the derivate of the top and bottom and reevaluate the same limit.

.

We still can't evaluate the limit of the new expression, so we do it one more time.

Example Question #8 : L'hospital's Rule

Find the 

.

Possible Answers:

Does Not Exist

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Subbing in zero into  will give you , so we can try to use L'hopital's Rule to solve.

First, let's find the derivative of the numerator. 

 is in the form , which has the derivative , so its derivative is 

 is in the form , which has the derivative , so its derivative is .

The derivative of  is  so the derivative of the numerator is .

In the denominator, the derivative of  is , and the derivative of  is . Thus, the entire denominator's derivative is .

Now we take the 

, which gives us 

Example Question #9 : L'hospital's Rule

Evaluate the following limit.

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

If we plug in 0 into the limit we get , which is indeterminate.

We can use L'Hopital's rule to fix this. We can take the derivative of the top and bottom and reevaluate the limit.

.

Now if we plug in 0, we get 0, so that is our final limit.

Example Question #10 : L'hospital's Rule

Evaluate the following limit

if possible.

Possible Answers:

Limit does not exist

Correct answer:

Explanation:

If we try to directly plug in the limit value into the function, we get

Because the limit is of the form , we can apply L'Hopital's rule to "simplify" the limit to

.

Now if we directly plug in 0 again, we get

.

Example Question #21 : New Concepts

Find the limit:  

Possible Answers:

 

Correct answer:

 

Explanation:

In order to determine the limit, substitute  to determine whether the expression is indeterminate.  

Use the L'Hopital's rule to simplify.  Take the derivative of the numerator and denominator separately, and reapply the limit.  

Substitute 

Example Question #31 : New Concepts

Evaluate: 

Possible Answers:

The limit does not exist.

Correct answer:

Explanation:

By substitution, the limit will yield an indeterminate form .  L'Hopital can be used in this scenario.

Take the derivative of the numerator and denominator separately, and then reapply the limit.

The answer is .

Example Question #12 : L'hospital's Rule

Evaluate the following limit:

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

When you try to solve the limit using normal methods, you find that the limit approaches zero in the numerator and denominator, resulting in an indeterminate form "0/0". 

In order to evaluate the limit, we must use L'Hopital's Rule, which states that:

when an indeterminate form occurs when evaluting the limit.

Next, simply find f'(x) and g'(x) for this limit:

The derivatives were found using the following rules:

Next, using L'Hopital's Rule, evaluate the limit using f'(x) and g'(x):

Example Question #13 : L'hospital's Rule

Determine the limit of: 

Possible Answers:

Undefined

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Rewrite the expression.

By substitutition, we will get the indeterminate form .

The L'Hopital's rule can be used to solve for the limit.  Write the L'Hopital's rule.

Apply this rule twice.

Example Question #14 : L'hospital's Rule

Evaluate the following limit:

 

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

When evaluating the limit using normal methods (substitution), you find that the indeterminate form of  is reached. To evaluate the limit, we can use L'Hopital's Rule, which states that:

So, we find the derivative of the numerator and denominator, which is

 and , respectively.

The derivatives were found using the following rules:

When we evaluate this new limit, we find that

.

 

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