Week 1: Monday

Limits
Last time, we described finding derivatives and integrals by using better and better approx-
imations, and then “finding the limit.” I didn’t say what limits were.

Notation:
lim f (x) = L
x→c

Means “the limit of f (x) as x approaches c equals L.”

This means that as x-values get close to c, f (x) (the y-values) get close to L.

More rigorously: You can make f (x) get as close as you want to L, by only taking x values
sufficiently close to c.

Notice: the limit doesn’t depend on f (c), just on f (x) for x close (but not equal) to c.

Examples
1. f (x) = x2 . What is lim x2 ?
x→2

−3 −2 −1 1 2 3

As x values get close to 2, f (x) gets close to 4. This happens to just be f (2). This is
because the graph is continuous; no jumps or holes.

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 (
x x ̸= 1
2. f (x) = .
2 x=1

−4 −2 2 4

−2

−4

What is lim f (x)? For x values close to 1, f (x) is close to 1. At 1, f jumps up to 2,

x→1
but the limit only cares about what happens near 1, not at it. So the limit here is 1.
(
x2 x<1
3. f (x) =
x+1 x≥1

−2 −1 1 2

What is lim f (x)? When we look at x-values less than 1, as they get close to 1, f (x)
x→1
approaches 1. But as x-values greater than 1 approach 1, f (x) goes towards 2. So in
this case, we say the limit does not exist.

We can make this idea more formal. We say that lim− f (x), the limit of f (x) as x approaches
x→c
c from the left, is equal to L if f (x) approaches L as x values less than c get close to c.

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Similarly, lim+ f (x), the limit of f (x) as x approaches c from the right, is what f (x) gets
x→c
close to when the x values greater than c approach c.

These are sometimes called the left-handed and right-handed limits, or the left and right
limits.

So in our previous example, lim− f (x) = 1, and lim+ f (x) = 2.

x→1 x→1

If lim− f (x) ̸= lim+ f (x), then lim f (x) doesn’t exist. If lim− f (x) = lim+ f (x) = L, then
x→c x→c x→c x→c x→c
lim f (x) = L.
x→c

Some more examples:

1. f (x) = 1/x2 .

400

300

200

100

−1 −0.5 0.5 1

As x gets close to 0 from the left, it isn’t approaching a number at all; f (x) is get-
ting larger and larger, faster and faster. It is going off towards infinity, so we write
lim− f (x) = ∞.
x→0

The same thing happens on the right, so lim+ f (x) = ∞. Since the left- and right-
x→0
handed limits match up, we conclude lim f (x) = ∞.
x→0

It is important to note that infinity is not a number; it should be thought of here as a

symbol that means "the values are increasing towards infinity".

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 2. f (x) = 1/x.

20

10

−1 −0.5 0.5 1

−10

−20

Here, the left-hand limit is −∞, and the right-hand limit is ∞. These don’t match, so
the limit doesn’t exist.

Continuous Functions
Note that in our first example, the limit was equal to our function value. That is because
the function was continuous.

You may have seen continuity defined as “you can draw it without picking up your pencil."
Here’s a more rigorous definition:

A function is continuous at c if lim f (x) = f (c).

x→c

To show a function is continuous, you need to check:

1. f (c) is defined

2. lim f (x) exists

x→c

3. The two are equal.

Functions that are continuous everywhere include:

1. polynomials

2. sine and cosine

3. exponentials

4. sums and products of the above

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If a function is continuous at c, to find the limit you can just plug c into the function.

If a function is not continuous at c, that means one of the following discontinuities occurs:

1. A hole, where f (c) is not defined, but the limit exists.

2. A jump, where the left and right limits are different. (See examples 2 and 3, on page
2).

3. An asymptote.

Limit Laws
Limits have the following properties: If lim f (x) and lim g(x) exist, then...
x→c x→c

• lim(f (x) + g(x)) = lim f (x) + lim g(x)

x→c x→c x→c

• lim(f (x)g(x)) = (lim f (x))(lim g(x)) You can combine these to get...
x→c x→c x→c

• lim f (x) − g(x) = lim f (x) − lim g(x).

x→c x→c x→c

lim f (x)
• If you also assume that lim g(x) ̸= 0, then lim f (x)/g(x) = x→c
lim g(x)
.
x→c x→c x→c

These limit laws are why sums/products of continuous functions are continuous.

We also talked briefly about indeterminate forms; I’ll be going over those in more detail on
Wednesday.

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Week 1: Wednesday
Limit Review
lim f (x) is what happens to f (x) as x approaches c.
x→c

Key point: This depends on f (x) when x is close to, but not equal to, c. It is in general
unrelated to the actual value f (c).

Finding limits:

• If f is continuous at c, then limx→c f (x) is just f (c). Functions that are continuous
everywhere include:

– polynomials

– sine, cosine

– exponential functions

– sums and products of the above

• If f is defined as a piecewise function, where each part is continuous:

1. Find the limits from the left and right. These are what the piece would be at that
point. You can just plug c into the appropriate piece of the function; sketching a
graph is often helpful.
(
2x x<0
Example: Find limx→0 f (x), where f (x) =
x2 − 1 x ≥ 0

−2 −1 1 2

−2

−4

The piece on the left ought to be 0 at 0, so that is the limit from the left; the
piece on the right ought to be (and is) −1, so that is the limit from the right. I’m
just plugging in 0 into the equation for each part.

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 2. If the left and right limits are the same, that’s your limit. If they are different,
the limit does not exist. (So in the example above, the limit doesn’t exist.)

• If f (x) is a fraction where the numerator and denominator are continuous, but the
denominator goes to 0.

If the numerator also goes to zero, that’s an indeterminate form; we’ll discuss that
more later. If not, that is an asymptote. The denominator going to zero means that
f (x) is getting larger. The options are: ∞, −∞, or DNE.

1. Find the left limit. We know it is ∞ or −∞; just need to figure out if it is positive
or negative. When x is just smaller than c, if f (x) is positive then we have the
left limit is ∞; if f (x) is negative, then we have −∞.

2. Find the right limit. Same deal, but with x just bigger than c.

3. Check if they line up. If they do, that’s the limit; if not, DNE.

Example: limx→3 x−3

x+2
. Note that the numerator and denominator are continuous; but
the denominator is going to 0.

1. When x is just less than 3, x + 2 is just less than 5, so the numerator is positive;
x − 3 is just less than 0, so the numerator is negative. This means that the overall
fraction is negative, so limx→3− x−3
x+2
= −∞.

2. When x is just greater than 3, x + 2 is just greater than 5, so still positive; x − 3

is just greater than 0, so also positive. So the overall fraction is positive. We
conclude that limx→3+ x+2
x−3
= ∞.

3. Since the left and right limits don’t match up, the limit doesn’t exist.

Indeterminate Forms
The general approach so far seems to be “plug in the x-value” and see what happens. Today
we will talk about what goes wrong with that, and what to do.
2
−4)
Example: f (x) = (xx+2 . We want to find limx→−2 f (x). If we just plug in −2, we get
(4 − 4)/0, so 0/0. This is undefined; it doesn’t tell us anything about what the limit should
be. All we know is that the numerator goes to 0, and the denominator also goes to 0.

Another example: g(x) = x2 + 3x + 2/(x + 2). The limit as x approaches 2 is 4 − 6 + 2/0 =

0/0; we got the same thing.

But these limits are not the same.

f (x) = (x+2)(x−2)
(x+2)
; we can cancel out the (x + 2). So for all x ̸= −2, f (x) = x − 2. Since the
limit only cares about what happens for x ̸= −2, and x + 2 is continuous, we can just plug

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in −2: lim f (x) = lim x − 2 = −4.
x→−2 x→−2

g(x) = (x+1)(x+2)
(x+2)
. When we simplify, we get that for all x ̸= −2, g(x) = x + 1. So
lim g(x) = lim x + 1 = −1.
x→−2 x→−2

Both were of the form 0/0, but the actual limits were different.

A limit is of indeterminate form if f (c) gives something undefined, of the form 0/0, ∞/∞,
∞ − ∞, or ∞ · 0.

Indeterminate forms do not mean that the limit doesn’t exist.

Procedure:

1. Identify the indeterminate form. Plug in the value for the numerator and denominator,
see what you get.

2. Simplify as much as possible. Usually, this means factoring; sometimes, you need other
algebraic tricks.

3. Cancel everything you can.

4. Evaluate (assuming the top and bottom are continuous).

Let’s do some more examples.

x2 −2x−8
Example: Compute limx→4 x2 −3x−4

1. First we plug in 4: 16−8−8

16−12−4
= 0/0. So this is an indeterminate form.

2. Let’s factor. We get (x−4)(x+2)

(x−4)(x+1)
.

3. Cancel. The x − 4 term cancels, so we get x+2

x+1
.

4. Note that both the top and bottom are continuous (and nonzero) at x = 4. So we can
simply substitute in x = 4 to find the limit.

Example: Compute limx→2 (x−2)(x+3)(x+1)

(x−2)3
.

1. Hopefully it is clear that x = 2 will give us 0/0.

2. We have this already factored, so we don’t need to do anything.

3. Cancel out x − 2 from both sides to get (x+3)(x+1)

(x−2)2
.

4. Now lets take the limit. We can’t just substitute, because the function is still undefined
at 2. The numerator goes to 15, while the denominator is always positive and goes to

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0. If the denominator is getting smaller and smaller, that means the overall function
is getting bigger and bigger, so the limit is going towards infinity.