First of all, thank you all very much for responding to this! I truly appreciate it.
Mark44 said:
No. Take a look at the "fine print" in the limit multiplication theorem and you'll see that it says that both limits have to exist, which excludes limits that are infinite.
The 0 * infinity form is one of several indeterminate forms. These are called indeterminate because you can't determine beforehand what their values will be. For example, the following limits are all of this form, but have completely different values:
\lim_{x \rightarrow \infty} x\frac{1}{x}
\lim_{x \rightarrow \infty} x^2\frac{1}{x}
\lim_{x \rightarrow \infty} x\frac{1}{x^2}
The values are, respectively, 1, infinity, and zero.
Okay, I looked up the
indeterminate forms of limits and I noticed the use of the L'Hospital rule so I'm sort of seeing how this is true.
lim sqrt(x)ln(x)
t->0+
f(x) = sqrt(x)
g(x) = ln(x)
I want to use the transformation to infinity/infinity so:
g(x)/1/f(x)
Take the derivative of the numerator and denominator:
g'(x) / 1/f'(x)
(1/x) / (1/-2x^(3/2))
which cleans up to be -2sqrt(x).
If you plug 0+ into -2sqrt(x) you end up with 0.
Just for practice and my understanding plus the fact that I have math sources right here (You folks rock!)...
I'm going to try the transformation to 0/0:
f(x)/1/g(x)
Take the derivative of the numerator and denominator:
[1/(2*sqrt(x))]/(-1/(x*log^2(x))
-1/2 sqrt(x)*log^2(x)
Which still gives me negative infinity (and brings me a step backwards).
So, by going through this process, I'm guessing that you probably want to take whatever term isn't giving you infinity and place it in the denominator with one over it. Then, take the derivatives of both the top and bottom of the function.
Gregg said:
Important to note that:
\displaystyle \lim_{x\to 0} x^kln(x) = 0
Consider
\displaystyle \lim_{x\to \infty} x^ke^{-x}=\frac{x^k}{e^x}
For k>0, let n be any integer larger than k.
\displaystyle \lim_{x\to \infty}\frac{x^k}{e^x}=\displaystyle \lim_{x\to \infty}\frac{x^k}{1+x+\frac{x^2}{2}+\cdots+\frac{x^n}{n!}+\frac{x^{n+1}}{(n+1)!}+\cdots}
From this we can show that:
\displaystyle \lim_{x\to \infty}\frac{x^k}{e^x}.\frac{x^{-n}}{x^{-n}}=\displaystyle \lim_{x\to \infty}\frac{x^{k-n}}{x^{-n}+x^{1-n}+\frac{x^{2-n}}{2}+\cdots+\frac{1}{n!}+\frac{x}{(n+1)!}+\cdots}
From this it's clear that in the limit the numerator tends to 0 since k-n is negative. All terms to the left of 1/n! tend to 0 but all terms to the right of it tend to infinity, hence:
\displaystyle\lim_{x\to\infty}x^ke^{-x} = 0 (1)
Next, let:
x=e^{-\frac{y}{k}}
From this it is clear that
x\to 0 \iff y\to \infty
\displaystyle\lim_{x\to 0}x^kln(x) = -\frac{1}{k} \lim_{y\to \infty} ye^{-y}
\displaystyle\lim_{x\to 0}x^kln(x) = 0 From (1)
I follow the proof up till the point where you set x = e^(-y/k). So, if you wouldn't mind, could you explain that part in a little bit more detail.
Thank you!
NastyAccident