Limit problem / l'hopital's rule

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gr3g1
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The limit n->infinity I have to compute is:[itex]\frac{n\cdot \log ^{5}(n)}{n^{2}}[/itex]Should I use L'hopital's rule? If I do, I have a problem:

First I simplify and get:

[itex]\frac{ \log ^{5}(n)}{n}[/itex]

Taking the derivative of the top, and the bottom leads to:

[itex]\frac{\frac{ 5\log ^{4}(n)}{n}}{1}[/itex]

At this point, we can see that the numerator is approaching 0, as n increases.

There 0/1 = 0

Is this correct?

Thanks
 
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gr3g1 said:
The limit n->infinity I have to compute is:


[itex]\frac{n\cdot \log ^{5}(n)}{n^{2}}[/itex]


Should I use L'hopital's rule? If I do, I have a problem:

First I simplify and get:

[itex]\frac{ \log ^{5}(n)}{n}[/itex]

Taking the derivative of the top, and the bottom leads to:

[itex]\frac{\frac{ 5\log ^{4}(n)}{n}}{1}[/itex]

At this point, we can see that the numerator is approaching 0, as n increases.

There 0/1 = 0

Is this correct?

Thanks
Why is it "obvious" (since you state it without proof) that [itex]5log^4(n)/n[/itex] goes to 0 when it was not obvious for [itex]log^5(n)/n[/itex]?

What do you get if you use L'Hopital again? And Again?
 
I just plugged in very large numbers and saw that it will approach zero. I guess I could have done that with the initial function as well.
 
The conclusion is correct. But I don't see why [itex]\frac{ \log ^{4}(n)}{n} \rightarrow 0[/itex] is any more obvious than [itex]\frac{ \log ^{5}(n)}{n} \rightarrow 0[/itex]. Why don't you keep applying l'Hopital until the log disappears?
 
Since the denominator becomes one, should I just continue taking the derivative of the numerator, until log disappears?

Thanks

Dick said:
The conclusion is correct. But I don't see why [itex]\frac{ \log ^{4}(n)}{n} \rightarrow 0[/itex] is any more obvious than [itex]\frac{ \log ^{5}(n)}{n} \rightarrow 0[/itex]. Why don't you keep applying l'Hopital until the log disappears?
 
gr3g1 said:
Since the denominator becomes one, should I just continue taking the derivative of the numerator, until log disappears?

Thanks

You applied l'Hopital to [itex]\frac{ \log ^{5}(n)}{n}[/itex] correctly. The original denominator of n became 1 but now you get a new denominator of n coming from the derivative of the log.
 
I think I see where this is going. I'll keep taking the derivative and eventually end up with a constant over n. Correct?

Dick said:
You applied l'Hopital to [itex]\frac{ \log ^{5}(n)}{n}[/itex] correctly. The original denominator of n became 1 but now you get a new denominator of n coming from the derivative of the log.