L'Hospital question

[EvLer]

I was just wondering... it is used when the limit is of indetermined form: 0/0 or inf/inf, but is it valid to apply it to a "regular" limit? technically it seems to give the same answer...

[CarlB]

If I recall, his rule was to the effect that the ratio of the limits, when the limits are 0 or \infty, is the ratio of the derivatives. That said, you certainly cannot apply it to a regular limit.

As an example, consider the limit:

Lim x->0 (cos(x)+3) /(x+4)

It is clear that the above limit is 4/5.

On the other hand,

Lim x-> 0 (-sin(x))/(1) = 0.

Carl

[EvLer]

Oh, ok thanks...