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Indeterminate Forms

 
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Section 4-10 : L'Hospital's Rule And Indeterminate Forms

Back in the chapter on Limits we saw methods for dealing with the following limits.
2 2
x − 16 4x − 5x
lim lim
2
x→4 x − 4 x→∞ 1 − 3x

In the first limit if we plugged in x = 4 we would get 0/0 and in the second limit if we “plugged”
in infinity we would get ∞/−∞ (recall that as x goes to infinity a polynomial will behave in the
same fashion that its largest power behaves). Both of these are called indeterminate forms. In
both of these cases there are competing interests or rules and it’s not clear which will win out.

In the case of 0/0 we typically think of a fraction that has a numerator of zero as being zero.
However, we also tend to think of fractions in which the denominator is going to zero, in the limit,
as infinity or might not exist at all. Likewise, we tend to think of a fraction in which the numerator
and denominator are the same as one. So, which will win out? Or will neither win out and they all
“cancel out” and the limit will reach some other value?

In the case of ∞/−∞ we have a similar set of problems. If the numerator of a fraction is going
to infinity we tend to think of the whole fraction going to infinity. Also, if the denominator is going
to infinity, in the limit, we tend to think of the fraction as going to zero. We also have the case of a
fraction in which the numerator and denominator are the same (ignoring the minus sign) and so
we might get -1. Again, it’s not clear which of these will win out, if any of them will win out.

With the second limit there is the further problem that infinity isn’t really a number and so we
really shouldn’t even treat it like a number. Much of the time it simply won’t behave as we would
expect it to if it was a number. To look a little more into this, check out the Types of Infinity
section in the Extras chapter at the end of this document.

This is the problem with indeterminate forms. It’s just not clear what is happening in the limit.
There are other types of indeterminate forms as well. Some other types are,
∞ 0 0
(0) (± ∞) 1 0 ∞ ∞ − ∞
These all have competing interests or rules that tell us what should happen and it’s just not clear
which, if any, of the interests or rules will win out. The topic of this section is how to deal with
these kinds of limits.

As already pointed out we do know how to deal with some kinds of indeterminate forms already.
For the two limits above we work them as follows.
2
x − 16
lim = lim (x + 4) = 8
x→4 x − 4 x→4

5
2
4x − 5x 4 − 4
x
lim = lim = −
2 1
x→∞ 1 − 3x x→∞ 3
− 3
2
x

In the first case we simply factored, canceled and took the limit and in the second case we
factored out an x2 from both the numerator and the denominator and took the limit. Notice as
well that none of the competing interests or rules in these cases won out! That is often the case.

So, we can deal with some of these. However, what about the following two limits.
x
sin x e
lim lim
2
x→0 x x→∞ x

This first is a 0/0 indeterminate form, but we can’t factor this one. The second is an ∞/∞
indeterminate form, but we can’t just factor an x2 out of the numerator. So, nothing that we’ve got
in our bag of tricks will work with these two limits.

This is where the subject of this section comes into play.

L’Hospital’s Rule

Suppose that we have one of the following cases,

f (x) 0 f (x) ±∞
lim = OR lim =
x→a g (x) 0 x→a g (x) ±∞

where a can be any real number, infinity or negative infinity. In these cases we have,
′
f (x) f (x)
lim = lim
′
x→a g (x) x→a g (x)

So, L’Hospital’s Rule tells us that if we have an indeterminate form 0/0 or ∞/∞ all we need to
do is differentiate the numerator and differentiate the denominator and then take the limit.

Before proceeding with examples let me address the spelling of “L’Hospital”. The more modern
spelling is “L’Hôpital”. However, when I first learned Calculus my teacher used the spelling that I
use in these notes and the first text book that I taught Calculus out of also used the spelling that I
use here.
Also, as noted on the Wikipedia page for L’Hospital's Rule,

“In the 17th and 18th centuries, the name was commonly spelled "l'Hospital", and he himself
spelled his name that way. However, French spellings have been altered: the silent 's' has been
removed and replaced with the circumflex over the preceding vowel. The former spelling is still
used in English where there is no circumflex.”

So, the spelling that I’ve used here is an acceptable spelling of his name, albeit not the modern
spelling, and because I’m used to spelling it as “L’Hospital” that is the spelling that I’m going to
use in these notes.

Let’s work some examples.

Example 1 Example 1 Evaluate each of the following limits.

sin x
(a) lim
x→0 x

4 2
5t − 4t − 1
(b) lim
3
t→1 10 − t − 9t

x
e
(c) lim
x→∞ 2
x

 
sin x
(a) lim Show Solution 
x→0 x

4 2
5t − 4t − 1
(b) lim 3
Show Solution 
t→1 10 − t − 9t
x
e
(c) lim Show Solution 
x→∞ 2
x

L’Hospital’s Rule works great on the two indeterminate forms 0/0 and ± ∞/± ∞ . However,
there are many more indeterminate forms out there as we saw earlier. Let’s take a look at some
of those and see how we deal with those kinds of indeterminate forms.

We’ll start with the indeterminate form (0) (± ∞).

Example 2 Evaluate the following limit.

lim x ln x
+
x→0

Show Solution 

In the previous example we used the fact that we can always write a product of functions as a
quotient by doing one of the following.
 g (x) f (x)
f (x) g (x) = OR f (x) g (x) =
1 1
/f (x) /g(x)

Using these two facts will allow us to turn any limit in the form (0) (± ∞) into a limit in the form
0/0 or ± ∞/± ∞ . Which one of these two we get after doing the rewrite will depend upon
which fact we used to do the rewrite. One of the rewrites will give 0/0 and the other will give
± ∞/± ∞ . It all depends on which function stays in the numerator and which gets moved

down to the denominator.

Let’s take a look at another example.

Example 3 Evaluate the following limit.

x
lim xe
x→−∞

Show Solution 

So, when faced with a product (0) (± ∞) we can turn it into a quotient that will allow us to use
L’Hospital’s Rule. However, as we saw in the last example we need to be careful with how we do
that on occasion. Sometimes we can use either quotient and in other cases only one will work.

Let’s now take a look at the indeterminate forms,

∞ 0 0
1 0 ∞

These can all be dealt with in the following way so we’ll just work one example.

Example 4 Evaluate the following limit.

1

lim x x
x→∞

Show Solution 

With L’Hospital’s Rule we are now able to take the limit of a wide variety of indeterminate forms
that we were unable to deal with prior to this section.

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