LHopitals rule

0
There are seven so-called indeterminate forms in math: 00 , 00 ,
, , 1 , , 0 . LHopitals
rule helps evaluate limits when you get an indeterminate form. For example, consider

sin(x)
.
x

lim

x0

As x 0, both sin(x) and x approach 0, so this limit becomes 0/0. This is certainly not helpful. So we use
LHopitals Rule:
LHopital: Suppose limxc

f (x)
g(x)

0
0

or

where c is allowed to be . Then

f (x)
f 0 (x)
= lim 0
,
xc g(x)
xc g (x)
lim

provided the right hand side exists.

So LHopitals rule is simple: provided we have one of those two forms, we just take the derivative of
the top and the bottom (separately; note no quotient rule is needed there) and then re-evaulate the limit.
So for example, since the limit above gives 0/0, we see
(sin(x))0
cos(x)
sin(x)
= lim
= lim
= 1.
x0
x0
x0
x
(x)0
1
lim

Exercise: Use LHopitals rule to show:

x2 + 4
=0
x
ex
lim

ex 1
= 1.
x0
x

and

lim

Suppose your limit became 0 instead? In that case, you need to somehow manipulate the limit to
get it into either 0/0 or / form.
1. CASE 1: 0 . Suppose we had limx xex . This is of the form 0 . To get it into the desired
1
form, we write ex = ex
, so that
x

lim xex = lim

x ex

1
= 0,
x ex

= lim

where we could use LHopitals rule at the end since we had an / form. Similarly, if we wanted to
evaluate
lim x ln(x),
x0

then we could write x =

1
1
x

, so that

lim x ln(x) = lim

x0

x0

ln(x)
1
x

1
x
x0 12
x

= lim

= lim x = 0.
x0

So when you have an integral of this type, transform the integral as above to get either 0/0 or /.
2. CASE 2: 00 , 1 , 0 . We deal with these cases similarly. Consider
lim xx .

x0

Suppose we write y = xx . Then ln(y) = x ln(x) (log rules). Therefore

lim ln(y) = lim x ln(x) = 0

x0

x0

(as in Case 1). But since eln(y) = y = xx , we find

lim xx = lim y = lim eln(y) = elimx0 y = e0 = 1.

x0

x0

x0

So the trick is to take logs, evaluate the limit, and then exponentiate your answer to get the solution
to your original limit. Lets do another:

x
1
.
lim 1 +
x
x

x


So if y = 1 + x1 , ln(y) = x ln 1 + x1 . Now


1
lim x ln 1 +
x
x
is a Case 1 integral. Practice that case by doing this limit, and see that you get 1. Therefore the
solution to your original limit is e1 = e.