Greatest Limit

Calculus Level 3

lim x 0 ( 100 x sin x + 99 sin x x ) = ? \lim_{x\rightarrow 0} \left( \left \lfloor \dfrac{100 x}{\sin x}\right \rfloor + \left \lfloor \dfrac{99 \sin x}{x}\right \rfloor \right) = \ ?

Notation : \lfloor \cdot \rfloor denotes the floor function .

200 198 199 201 Does not exist 197

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2 solutions

Kartik Sharma
Oct 5, 2015

Well, there are much better ways to solve this problem (using Squeeze theorem, some inequalities etc.) but I would show a graphical approach.

Well, can you make the graph of x sin ( x ) \frac{x}{\sin(x)} and sin ( x ) x \frac{\sin(x)}{x} ? Not directly obviously but one can guess how their graphs would look like. They are just x csc ( x ) x \csc(x) and s i n c ( x ) sinc(x) and we know the graphs of sin ( x ) \sin(x) and csc ( x ) \csc(x) and the x x s will slightly change the graph in width etc. but the shape will remain quite a bit same.

I shall show you the graphs of both our functions and then I hope you'll realize that it is really guessable(Guesses are really important in science and mathematics, said Mr. Feynman(not exact words though))

sin ( x ) x \frac{\sin(x)}{x} -

x sin ( x ) \frac{x}{\sin(x)} -

Now, as you can see that in the first function when it is approaching 0, it is coming from the bottom and reaching the maximum and hence, greatest integer function would give a lesser value.

Similarly, in the second function, the graph is coming down to its local minima while approaching 0 and hence, greatest integer function should give a greater value.

Now, we can move to the problem,

lim x 0 ( 100 x sin x + 99 sin x x ) = 100 lim x 0 ( x sin ( x ) ) + ( 99 1 ) lim x 0 ( sin ( x ) x ) \displaystyle \lim_{x\rightarrow 0} \left( \left \lfloor \frac{100 x}{\sin x}\right \rfloor + \left \lfloor \frac{99 \sin x}{x}\right \rfloor \right) = 100 \lim_{x \rightarrow 0}\left(\frac{x}{\sin(x)}\right) + (99-1)\lim_{x \rightarrow 0}\left(\frac{\sin(x)}{x}\right) [ 1 1 is subtracted since as we discussed above, the greatest integer must be less and the greatest integer less than 99 99 is 98 98 ]

hence, = 100 + 98 = 198 \displaystyle = 100 + 98 = \boxed{198}

You know what? This is my 199 199 th solution and probably the worst.

Kartik Sharma - 5 years, 8 months ago

Trivial by series expansion

Harry Jones - 3 years, 1 month ago
David Bieber
Apr 29, 2018

I present here an informal solution that allows you to quickly arrive at the correct conclusion.

For small x, sin ( x ) x \sin(x) \approx x . To evaluate the floor functions, we need to know whether sin ( x ) \sin(x) is slightly greater than or less than x. If s i n ( x ) < x sin(x) < x then the sum is 100 + 98. If s i n ( x ) > x sin(x) > x then the sum is 99 + 99. For x slightly less than 0, one of these will be true, and for x just greater than 0, the other will be true. In either case the sum is 198.

So, the limit exists and equals 198.

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