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(a) You are trying to guess lim x→0 f(x). You plug in x = 0.1, x = 0.01, x = 0.001,..., and get f(x) = 0 for all these values. In fact, you are told that for all n=1,2,..., it's true that f(1/10^n) = 0. Is it true or false that lim x→0 f(x) = 0? If it is true, use the definition of a limit to establish your claim, if false, give a concrete example to demonstrate why it can fail.

(b) Explain why you can not use the limit laws to find limx→0 (xsinx(1/x)cos(1/x)).Identify another Theorem that can be used and calculate the limit.

1 Answer

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Final answer:

For part (a), it is true that lim x→0 f(x) = 0. We can use the definition of a limit to establish this claim. For part (b), the limit limx→0 (x*sinx(1/x)cos(1/x)) cannot be found using the limit laws, but it can be determined using the Squeeze Theorem.

Step-by-step explanation:

(a) Answer:

Given that for all n=1,2,..., f(1/10^n) = 0, we need to determine if it is true that lim x→0 f(x) = 0.



We can establish that the claim is true using the definition of a limit. According to the definition, for any ε > 0, there exists a δ > 0 such that if 0 < |x - 0| < δ, then |f(x) - 0| < ε.



In this case, since f(1/10^n) = 0 for all n=1,2,..., we can choose δ = 1/10^m, where m is any positive integer. Then, for any chosen ε > 0, if 0 < |x - 0| < δ = 1/10^m, we have |f(x) - 0| = |f(x)| = 0 < ε. Therefore, the claim is true and lim x→0 f(x) = 0.



(b) Answer:

We cannot use the limit laws to find limx→0 (xsinx(1/x)cos(1/x)) because the limit laws only apply to finite limits of individual functions. In this case, we have a product of multiple functions with limits involving 0.



To find this limit, we can use the Squeeze Theorem. If we can find two functions g(x) and h(x) such that g(x) ≤ x*sin(x*(1/x)*cos(1/x)) ≤ h(x) for all x in the domain, and both g(x) and h(x) have the same limit as x approaches 0, then the limit of the given expression will also be the same.



By simplifying the expression, we get g(x) = x*(-1) and h(x) = x*(1). Both g(x) = -x and h(x) = x have the limit of 0 as x approaches 0. Therefore, by the Squeeze Theorem, the limit limx→0 (x*sin(x*(1/x)*cos(1/x)) is also 0.

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