MTH101: Calculus I

IBU Lecture 4: Limits Involving

International Burch University
Infinity

Lecture 4: Limits Involving Infinity (Section 1.6)

1
Example 1: Graph f (x) = , and use its graph to find lim− f (x)
x −2 x→2
and lim+ f (x).
x→2

x f(x)
2.5
2.1
2.01
2.001
x f(x)
1.5
1.9
1.99
1.999

We see that absolute value of f(x) becomes

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Definition
Let f be defined on both sides of a, except possibly at a. Then

lim f (x) = ∞
x→a

means that the values of f(x) can be made arbitrarily large by taking x
sufficiently close to a, but not equal to a.

lim f (x) = ∞ is read f(x) becomes infinite as x approaches a.

x→a

Definition
Let f be defined on both sides of a, except possibly at a. Then

lim f (x) = −∞
x→a

means that the values of f(x) can be made arbitrarily large negative by
taking x sufficiently close to a, but not equal to a.

Similarly, we can define

lim f (x) = ∞ and lim f (x) = ∞

x→a+ x→a−

lim f (x) = −∞ and lim f (x) = −∞

x→a+ x→a−

In our example
1 1
lim− = and lim+ =
x→2 x −2 x→2 x −2
Definition
The line x=a is called a vertical asymptote of the curve y=f(x) if at
least one of the following is true:

lim f (x) = ∞ lim f (x) = ∞ lim f (x) = ∞

x→a x→a+ x→a−

lim f (x) = −∞ lim f (x) = −∞ lim f (x) = −∞

x→a x→a+ x→a−

1
x = 2 is a vertical asymptote to f (x) = (Example 1).
x −2

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x +2 x +2
Example 2: Find lim+ and lim−
x→1 x −1 x→1 x − 1

x +2
lim+ =
x→1 x −1
x +2
lim =
x→1− x −1

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Example 3: y = ln x is defined for x > 0. From the graph of y = ln x,

we can see that

lim+ ln x =
x→0

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x2 x2
Example 4: Find lim 2 and lim
x→∞ x + 3 x→−∞ x 2 + 3

x f(x)
10 0.9709
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100

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 x f(x)
-10 0.9709
-20
-30
-40
-50
-60
-70
-80
-90
-100

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Definition
Let f be a function defined on (a, ∞), for some a. Then

lim f (x) = L
x→∞

means that that the values of f can be made arbitrarily close to L by

taking x sufficiently large.

Definition
Let f be a function defined on (−∞, a), for some a. Then

lim f (x) = L
x→−∞

means that that the values of f can be made arbitrarily close to L by

taking x sufficiently large negative.

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 Definition
The line y = L is called a horizontal asymptote of the curve y = f (x) if
either
lim f (x) = L or lim f (x) = L
x→∞ x→−∞

1 1
Example 5: Find lim , and lim
x→∞ x x→−∞ x
x f(x)
10 0.1
102
103
104 1
lim =
x→∞ x
105
1
x f(x) lim =
x→−∞ x
-10 -0.1
-102
-103
-104

Theorem
If r > 0 is a rational number, then
1
lim =0
x→∞ x r

If r > 0 is a rational number such that x r is defined for all x, then

1
lim =0
x→−∞ x r

x3 + 1
Example 6: Find lim
x→∞ x 3 + x 2

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Shortcut for finding limits at infinity for rational
functions:

p(x)
Let f (x) = , where
q(x)

p(x) =an x n + an−1 x n−1 + . . . + a1 x + a0

q(x) =bm x m + bm−1 x m−1 + . . . + b1 x + b0

are of degree n and degree m, respectively. Then

1 If n < m, then
2 If n = m, then
3 If n > m, then

x2
Example 7: Find all horizontal asymptotes of y =
x2 + 3

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 p
Example 8: Find lim ( x 2 + 1 − x)
x→∞

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sin 2x
Example 9: Find lim
x→∞ x

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