L'Hopital's Rule

Read this section to learn how to use and apply L'Hopital's Rule. Work through practice problems 1-3.

Strong Version of L'Hôpital's Rule

L'Hô pital's Rule can be strengthened to include the case when g^{\prime}(a)=0 and the indeterminate form " \infty/\infty ", the case when both \mathrm{f} and \mathrm{g} increase without any bound.

L'Hô pital's Rule (Strong " 0 / 0 " and " \infty / \infty " forms)

If \mathrm{f} and \mathrm{g} are differentiable on an open interval I which contains the point a, \mathrm{g}^{\prime}(\mathrm{x}) \neq 0 on I except possibly at \mathrm{a}, and

\lim \limits_{x \rightarrow a} \frac{f(x)}{g(x)} = " \frac{0}{0} " or " \frac{\infty}{\infty} "

then \lim \limits_{x \rightarrow a} \frac{f(x)}{g(x)}=\lim \limits_{x \rightarrow a} \frac{f^{\prime}(x)}{g^{\prime}(x)} provided the limit on the right exists.
( " a " can represent a finite number or " \infty ". )

Example 2: Evaluate \lim \limits_{x \rightarrow \infty} \frac{e^{7 x}}{5 x}.

Solution: As " x \rightarrow \infty ", both f(x)=e^{7 x} and g(x)=5 x increase without bound so we have an " \infty / \infty " indeterminate form and can use the Strong Version l'Hô pital's Rule:

\lim \limits_{x \rightarrow \infty} \frac{e^{7 x}}{5 x}=\lim \limits_{x \rightarrow \infty} \frac{7 e^{7 x}}{5}=\infty

The limit of f '/g ' may also be an indeterminate form, and then we can apply l'Hô pital's Rule to the ratio f ' / \mathrm{g} '. We can continue using l'Hô pital's Rule at each stage as long as we have an indeterminate quotient.

Example 3: \lim \limits_{x \rightarrow 0} \frac{x^{3}}{x-\sin (x)}

Solution: As x \rightarrow 0, f(x)=x^{3} \rightarrow 0 and g(x)=x-\sin (x) \rightarrow 0 so

\lim \limits_{x \rightarrow 0} \frac{x^{3}}{x-\sin (x)}=\lim \limits_{x \rightarrow 0} \frac{3 x^{2}}{1-\cos (x)} \rightarrow " \frac{0}{0} " so we can use l'Hô pital's Rule again

=\lim \limits_{x \rightarrow 0} \frac{6 x}{\sin (x)} \rightarrow " \frac{0}{0} " and again

=\lim \limits_{x \rightarrow 0} \frac{6}{\cos (x)}=\frac{6}{1}=6.

Practice 2: Use l'Hô pital's Rule to find \lim \limits_{x \rightarrow \infty} \frac{x^{2}+e^{x}}{x^{3}+8 x}.