Does L'Hopital's Rule Apply to Limits of x^(1-p) as x Approaches Infinity?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers around the limit of the expression \( \lim_{x \to \infty} x^{1-p} \) where \( p > 1 \). Participants explore whether L'Hôpital's Rule can be applied to evaluate this limit and discuss the implications of the parameter \( p \) on the limit's behavior.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Mathematical reasoning
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant expresses uncertainty about whether there is a unique solution to the limit problem and notes that L'Hôpital's Rule did not yield a satisfactory result.
  • Another participant attempts to apply L'Hôpital's Rule, suggesting that the limit can be transformed into an indeterminate form \( \infty/\infty \) and concludes that the limit approaches 0 under the condition \( p > 1 \).
  • A different participant intuitively believes that the function should approach zero for any \( p > 1 \) and proposes a method of rewriting the expression to facilitate the application of L'Hôpital's Rule.
  • One participant questions the conditions under which L'Hôpital's Rule can be applied and clarifies that if \( p > 1 \), then \( 1 - p < 0 \), leading to a limit that can be expressed as \( \frac{1}{x^s} \) where \( s > 0 \).

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the application of L'Hôpital's Rule and the behavior of the limit, indicating that there is no consensus on the correct approach or conclusion regarding the limit's value.

Contextual Notes

Some participants highlight the need for clarity on the conditions for applying L'Hôpital's Rule and the assumptions regarding the limit approaching positive infinity.

Bipolarity
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I've been trying for a while to compute this limit. Is there even a unique solution to this problem?

[tex]\lim_{x→∞} x^{1-p}[/tex] where [itex]p>1[/itex]

I tried using L'Hopital's rule, but it didn't work out.

BiP
 
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I'm also curious about the answer


lim(x-->∞) x1-p = lim(x-->∞) x1x-p = lim(x-->∞) x/xp = ∞/∞

So we apply l'hospital's:

lim(x-->∞) 1/(pxp-1) = 1/p lim(x-->∞) 1/(xp-1)


so as long as p-1>0 the limit goes to 0, right? And we know, p>1, so we know that p-1>0 so this should go to 0
 
It seems to me that, intuitively, your function should approach zero regardless of p (assuming p > 1). Let me see what I can do more legitimately though.

First split ##x^{1-p}## into ##x^1 x^{-p}##


From there I would make it a quotient and try some fancy l'hopital's on it. I'd help more but I need to get somewhere. Good luck, however!

Mod note: in LaTeX expressions with exponents with more than one character, use braces - {} - around the exponent. I fixed the exponents above.[/color]
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Bipolarity said:
I've been trying for a while to compute this limit. Is there even a unique solution to this problem?

[tex]\lim_{x→∞} x^{1-p}[/tex] where [itex]p>1[/itex]

I tried using L'Hopital's rule, but it didn't work out.

BiP

1. Do you know in which cases you're allowed to use L'Hôpital's rule ??
2. By [itex]\infty[/itex] do you assume [itex]+\infty[/itex] ?
2. If p>1, then 1-p <0 = -s, s>0, so that the object under the limit becomes

[tex]\frac{1}{x^s}, ~ s>0[/tex]

Which should be easier to handle when considering the limit.
 

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