Find the value of c ?

Calculus Level 3

Find a real number c c for which the following is true:

lim r r c 0 π / 2 x r sin x d x 0 π / 2 x r cos x d x = 2 π {\large \lim_{r\to\infty}} \frac{\displaystyle r^c \int_0^{\pi/2} x^r \sin x \,dx}{\displaystyle \int_0^{\pi/2} x^r \cos x \,dx} \large = \frac{2}{\pi}


The answer is -1.

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1 solution

Mark Hennings
Apr 29, 2019

We can apply Laplace's method for integrals to deduce the asymptotic behaviour 0 π 2 x r sin x d x r 1 ( 1 2 π ) r + 1 0 π 2 x r cos x d x r 2 ( 1 2 π ) r + 2 \begin{aligned} \int_0^{\frac{\pi}{2}} x^r \sin x\,dx & \sim \; r^{-1}\big(\tfrac12\pi\big)^{r+1} \\ \int_0^{\frac{\pi}{2}} x^r \cos x\,dx & \sim \; r^{-2}\big(\tfrac12\pi\big)^{r+2} \end{aligned} as r r \to \infty , so that r c 0 π 2 x r sin x d x 0 π 2 x r cos x d x 2 r c + 1 π r \frac{\displaystyle r^c \int_0^{\frac{\pi}{2}} x^r \sin x\,dx}{\displaystyle \int_0^{\frac{\pi}{2}} x^r \cos x\,dx} \; \sim \; \frac{2r^{c+1}}{\pi} \hspace{2cm} r \to \infty and hence we deduce that c = 1 c = \boxed{-1} is the required value.

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