19.1k views
1 vote
Hi I was wondering if you could confirm why the limit is 0

Hi I was wondering if you could confirm why the limit is 0-example-1
User Alfred Luu
by
2.9k points

1 Answer

4 votes

Hello there. To solve this question, we have to remember some properties about limits.

Given the following limit:


\begin{gathered} \lim_(x\to\infty)(\cos(5x))/(x) \\ \end{gathered}

We want to determine its value.

For this, we'll use the "sandwich" theorem, that is also called as the squeeze theorem.

Notice that


-1\leq\cos(5x)\leq1

Hence dividing both sides of the equation by a factor of x, we'll get


-(1)/(x)\leq(\cos(5x))/(x)\leq(1)/(x)

Taking the limit as x goes to infinity (and of course this works for x very large), it wouldn't work if we were to determine the value at 0.


\lim_(x\to\infty)-(1)/(x)\leq\lim_(x\to\infty)(\cos(5x))/(x)\leq\lim_(x\to\infty)(1)/(x)

The left and right hand side limits are equal to zero, hence


0\leq\lim_(x\to\infty)(\cos(5x))/(x)\leq0

And this is precisely the value of this limit:


\lim_(x\to\infty)(\cos(5x))/(x)=0

User Elijah Manor
by
3.1k points