How Many Coffee Beans are in the Jar?

Name:____________________

Guessing games are popular at carnivals, showers, and other festivities, but people
are notoriously bad at them. Is there a strategic way to narrow down your estimate
to get at the correct solution? And might this strategy give us a clue about finding
other values that are hard to estimate, like limits of complicated functions?

1. Individually, estimate the number of coffee beans in the jar by giving an estimate that is too low
and one that is too high.

Too low _______________ Too high _______________

2. Compare answers with others in your group. After discussing your results, come to a consensus
about what you think is a more helpful “too low” estimate and a more helpful “too high”
estimate. Then come up with your actual guess. We will discuss our results shortly.

Too low ____________ Too high ________________

Actual guess ________________

3. Maybe we can investigate complex limits by finding “too low” and “too high” estimates.
+
a. Why do our limit properties not work to evaluate lim 𝑥 ( sin ?
$→& $

b. What two values is sin 𝑥 sandwiched between? Fill in the inequality.

________≤ sin 𝑥 ≤_________

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c. What about sin ? Has the range of the function changed?
$

+
______≤ sin ≤_________
$

d. What would happen if we applied a vertical stretch or shrink? Has the range of the
function changed?
+ + +
_____≤ 3 sin $ ≤_________ _____≤ ( sin $ ≤_________
+
_____≤ 𝑘 sin $ ≤_________
+
e. Using the ideas from 3d, what would 𝑥 ( sin $ be sandwiched between? (Hint: they will
be functions!)
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_____≤ 𝑥 ( sin $ ≤_________
4. Now, we can start talking about limits!

a. What is the limit as x approaches 0 of your lower-bound function?

b. What is the limit as x approaches 0 of your upper-bound function?

+
c. What is lim 𝑥 ( sin $?
$→&
 Topic 1.8—The Squeeze Theorem
Important Ideas:

Check Your Understanding!

1. On the interval (0,1), complete the inequality with the following functions, 𝑓(𝑥) = 𝑥,
𝑔(𝑥) = 𝑥 ( , and ℎ(𝑥) = ln 𝑥.

_______________≤_________________≤ __________________
:
2. For 0 < 𝑥 < ; , find a function with values sandwiched between 𝑓(𝑥) = sin 𝑥 and 𝑔(𝑥) = cos 𝑥.

+ +B
3. Let 𝑘(𝑥) = −𝑥 ( − 2𝑥 + 3, and 𝑚(𝑥) = ( 𝑥 ( + 𝑥 + ( . If f is a function that satisfies
𝑘(𝑥) ≤ 𝑓(𝑥) ≤ 𝑚(𝑥), explain why the squeeze theorem can NOT be used to find lim 𝑓(𝑥).
$→C+

4. Selected values of two continuous functions, f and g, are given in the table below.

𝒙 𝒇(𝒙) 𝒈(𝒙)
-3 9 15
0 7 8
1 11 11
2 -1 2
7 -5 -4

If 𝑓(𝑥) ≤ 𝑘(𝑥) ≤ 𝑔(𝑥) for all values of x, find lim 𝑘(𝑥). Explain your reasoning.
$→+