Yahoo Answers is shutting down on 4 May 2021 (Eastern Time) and the Yahoo Answers website is now in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

Can you evaluate this limit?

Easy:

. lim ... [sin(tan(x)) - tan(sin(x))] / [arcsin(arctan(x)) - arctan(arcsin(x))]

x-->0

Update:

Sorry, Captain, but

..lim . -sec²(sin(x)) cos(x) = 1, not zero.

x-->0

We still have a 0/0 indetermination...

Any ideas?

Update 2:

Sorry, the limit in the comment above is -1 not 1...

2 Answers

Relevance
  • 1 decade ago
    Favourite answer

    Yikes! The answer is nice, but finding it is a bear! L'Hopital will work, of course, but you need to apply it more than half a dozen times. (Dozens of chain rules without making a mistake...)

    You might try numerical approximation, but both the numerator and denominator get really small really fast, so it is hard to calculate accurate numbers when "x" is close to zero (every x-value much smaller than one hundredth incorrectly gives "undefined"). A spreadsheet approach is not very convincing.

    Sketching a graph is fairly convincing. Just don't zoom in TOO much or you start to see weird things (resulting from round off errors).

    My best suggestion for exact results is to use Maclaurin Series. Unfortunately, you need to use at least FOUR terms:

    Sin(x) = x - x^3 / 6 + x^5 /120 - x^7 / 5040 + O(x^9)

    Tan(x) = x + x^3 / 3 + 2x^5 / 15 + 17x^7 / 315 + O(x^9)

    ArcSin(x) = x + x^3 / 6 + 3x^5 /40 + 5x^7 / 112 + O(x^9)

    ArcTan(x) = x - x^3 / 3 + x^5 / 5 - x^7 / 7 + O(x^9)

    Substitute to find Sin(Tan(x)) and Tan(Sin(x)) and ArcSin(ArcTan(x)) and ArcTan(ArcSin(x)). If you can do that (the x^7 term is the killer and it IS needed), then it is easy to subtract and finally divide to get a linear approximation for:

    [sin(tan(x)) - tan(sin(x))] / [arcsin(arctan(x)) - arctan(arcsin(x))]

    THEN the limit is trivial, just substitute x=0.

    Source(s): Here is a good grapher, http://calculus.sfsu.edu/calculus_I/grapher/ Just copy the expression from the limit and paste it into the "y=" box. Then click "Graph y=f(x)". A list of Maclaurin series for common functions (to check your calculations): http://mathworld.wolfram.com/MaclaurinSeries.html
  • As we are left with 0/0, we should use L'Hopitals rule:

    a = sin(tan(x))

    b = -tan(sin(x))

    c = arcsin(arctan(x))

    d = -arctan(arcsin(x))

    da = cos(tan(x)) * (sec(x)^2)

    db = -sec(sin(x))^2 * (cos(x))

    dc = 1 / sqrt(1 - arctan(x)^2) * (1 / (1 + x^2))

    db = -1 / (1 + arcsin(x)^2) * 1 / sqrt(1 - x^2))

    x = 0

    da = cos(0) * 1/1 = 1

    db = 0 * 1 = 0

    dc = 1 / sqrt(1 - 0)) * (1 / (1 + 0)) = 1 / 1 * 1 / 1 = 1

    db = -1 / (1 + 0)) * 1 / 1 = -1

    1 / (1 - 1) = 1 / 0

    Yeah, this is real fing easy

    You're going to have to take the 2nd derivative and see if anything changes. But I've wasted too much time on this already.

Still have questions? Get answers by asking now.