LIMITS AND CONTINUITY

OLIVIA YANCEY

1. Limits
Definition 1.1 (Intuitive Meaning of Limit). To say that the limit
limxc f (x) = L means that when x is near but different than c, then
f (x) is near L.
Definition 1.2 (Rigorous Definition of Limit). To say that limxc f (x) =
L means that for all  > 0 there is a corresponding > 0 such that
|f (x) L| < , provided that 0 < |x c| < .
Example 1.3. Prove that limx4 (3x 7) = 5.
Proof. Let  > 0. Choose = 3 . Then 0 < |x 4| < implies that
|x 4|
3|x 4|
|3(x 4)|
|3x 12|
|(3x 7) 5|

<
<
<
<
<


3




.


1.1. Properties of Limits. Suppose that c is a constant, limxa f (x)

and limxa g(x) exists. Then,
(1) limxa [f (x) g(x)] = limxa f (x) limxa g(x)
(2) limxa [cf (x)] = c limxa f (x)
(3) limxa [f (x)g(x)] = limxa f (x) limxa g(x)
(x)
xa f (x)
(4) limxa [ fg(x)
] = lim
, limxa g(x) 6= 0
limxa g(x)
n
(5) limxa [f (x)] = [limxa f (x)]n , n > 0
(6) limxa c = c
(7) limxa x = a
n
(8) limxa xp
= an , with
p n being a positive integer.
(9) limxa n f (x) = n limxa f (x), with limxa f (x) 0 if n is
even.
Date: September 17, 2015.
1

OLIVIA YANCEY

1.2. Limits at Infinity. If f (x) gets as close to a number L as we

please when x gets sufficiently large, then we write
lim f (x) = L.

Similarly, if f (x) approaches L when x is negative and has a sufficiently

large absolute value then we write
lim f (x) = L.

2. Continuity
Definition 2.1 (Intuitive Definition of Continuity). The function f is
continuous at x = c if f is defined at x = c and if
lim f (x) = f (c).

xc

In other words, f (x) is as close as we want to f (c) provided x is close

enough to c. the function is continuous on an interval [a, b] if it is
continuous at every point in the interval.
Definition 2.2 (Rigorous Definition of Continuity). A function f :
A IR is continuous at a point c A if, for all  > 0, there exists
a > 0 such that whenever |x c| < (and x A) it follows that
|f (x) f (c)| < .
If f is continuous at every point in the domain A, then we say that
f is continuous on A.
Theorem 2.1 (Continuity of Sums, Products, and Quotients of Functions). Suppose that f and g are continuous on an interval and that b
is a constant. Then, on that same interval,
(1) bf (x) is continuous.
(2) f (x) + g(x) is continuous.
(3) f (x)g(x) is continuous.
(x)
(4) fg(x)
is continuous, provided g(x) 6= 0 on the interval.
Proof. For the following four parts, let b be a constant and assume f
and g are continuous on a domain with c being an arbitrary element of
the domain. Also, to avoid since f and g are continuous we know that
limxc f (x) = f (c) and also limxc g(x) = g(c).
To prove (1) we need to show that limxc (bf (x)) = bf (c). Since f (x)
is continuous and by the second property of limits,
lim(bf (x)) = b lim f (x) = bf (c).

xc

xc

LIMITS AND CONTINUITY

And we have bf (x) being continuous.

Now to prove (2) we need to show that limxc (f (x) + g(x)) = f (c) +
g(c). Since both f and g are continuous and by applying the first limit
property, we have
lim(f (x) + g(x)) = lim f (x) + lim g(x) = f (c) + g(c).

xc

xc

xc

Thus f (x) + g(x) is continuos.

To show (3) we must achieve limxc (f (x)g(x)) = f (c)g(c). Since f and
g are continuous and by the third limit property,
lim(f (x)g(x)) = lim f (x) lim g(x) = f (c)g(c).

xc

xc

xc

Therefore, f (x)g(x) is continuous.

(x)
(c)
Finally, to prove (4) we need to show that limxc fg(x)
= fg(c)
provided
that g(x) 6= 0 on the interval. Since f and g are continuous and by the
forth limit property we have,
f (x)
limxc f (x)
f (c)
=
=
.
xc g(x)
limxc g(x)
g(c)
lim

Hence

f (x)
g(x)

is continuous provided that g(x) 6= 0 on the interval.

Theorem 2.2 (Intermediate Value Theorem). Suppose f is continuous

on a closed interval [a, b]. If k is any number between f (a) and f (b),
then there is at least one number c in [a, b] such that f (c) = k.
The usefulness of the Intermediate Value Theorem comes when we
are trying to prove the existence of a root of a function. If we have
one end point being negative and the other being positive, then by the
Intermediate Value Theorem, the function must cross the x axis.
Example 2.3. Use the Intermediate Value Theorem to show that the
equation x cos x = 0 has a solution between x = 0 and x = 2 .
Solution: Let f (x) = x cos x and W = 0. We will begin by solving
for the endpoints. We see that
f (0) = 0 cos 0 = 1.
Also,

f ( ) = cos = .
2
2
2
2

Since f is continuous on [0, 2 ] and W = 0 is between f (0) and f ( 2 ),

the Intermediate Value Theorem implies the existence of a c in the
interval (0, 2 ) with the property that f (c) = 0. Such a c is a solution
to the equation x cos x = 0.

OLIVIA YANCEY

2.1. Relationship Between Differentiability and Continuity.

Theorem 2.3. If f (x) is differentiable at a point x = a, then f (x) is
continuous at x = a
3. LHopitals Rule
If f and g are differentiable, f (a) = g(a) = 0, and g 0 (a) 6= 0, then
f (x)
f 0 (a)
lim
= 0 .
xa g(x)
g (a)
Example 3.1. Use lHopitals rule to confirm that limx0
Solution: Both limits have the

0
0

sin(x)
x

=1

form, so by lHopitals Rule,

cos x
sin x
= lim
= 1.
x0
x0 x
1
lim

LHopitals rule applies to limits involving infinity, provided f and g

are differentiable. For any real number a or :
When limxa f (x) = and limxa g(x) =
or
When limx f (x) = limx g(x) = 0.
It can be shown that:
f (x)
f 0 (x)
lim
= lim 0
,
xa g(x)
xa g (x)
provided the limit on the right-hand exists.
Example 3.2. Calculate limx

x
ex

Solution: Both x and ex tend to as x . So by lHopitals Rule

x
1
= lim x = 0.
lim
x e
x ex