Limits and Integrals together.

Calculus Level 5

lim n n 0 π 4 tan n x d x \large \lim_{n\to \infty} n\int_{0}^{\frac{\pi}{4}} \tan^{n}x \ dx

Find the limit above.


The answer is 0.5.

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2 solutions

Prakhar Gupta
Feb 2, 2015

Let's calculate the integral first:- I n = 0 π 4 t a n n x d x I_{n} = \int_{0}^{\dfrac{\pi}{4}} tan^{n}xdx I n = 0 π 4 t a n n 2 x t a n 2 x d x I_{n} = \int_{0}^{\dfrac{\pi}{4}} tan^{n-2}x tan^{2}xdx I n = 0 π 4 t a n n 2 x ( s e c 2 x 1 ) d x I_{n} = \int_{0}^{\dfrac{\pi}{4}} tan^{n-2}x (sec^{2}x-1)dx I n = 0 π 4 t a n n 2 x s e c 2 x d x 0 π 4 t a n n 2 x d x I_{n} = \int_{0}^{\dfrac{\pi}{4}}tan^{n-2}x sec^{2}x dx-\int_{0}^{\dfrac{\pi}{4}} tan^{n-2}xdx I n = [ t a n n 1 x n 1 ] 0 π 4 I n 2 I_{n} = \Bigg[ \dfrac{tan^{n-1}x}{n-1} \Bigg]_{0}^{\dfrac{\pi}{4}}-I_{n-2} I n + I n 2 = 1 n 1 I_{n} + I_{n-2} = \dfrac{1}{n-1} As n , I n = I n 2 = l ( l e t ) n \to \infty, I_{n}=I_{n-2}=l(let) . Hence l + l = 1 n 1 l+l = \dfrac{1}{n-1} l = 1 2 ( n 1 ) l=\dfrac{1}{2(n-1)} Now we will calculate the limit. lim n n 2 ( n 1 ) \lim_{n \to \infty} \dfrac{n}{2(n-1)} Hence the limit is 0.5 \boxed{0.5} Please can anyone help me in solving the reduction formula so as to find the exact explicit formula of I n I_{n} .

Exactly the same!

SHASHANK GOEL - 5 years ago
Ayush Garg
Mar 19, 2016

I have a query..is this last step correct? And if it isn't... doesn't the fact that the answer actually is 0.5 (see prakhar's solution) prove the last line to be correct?

Moderator note:

The last step is wrong. We cannot randomly interchange the order of limits. In this case,

lim n ( i = 1 a i , n \lim_{n\rightarrow \infty } ( \sum_{i=1}^\infty a_{i,n} \neq \sum_i \lim_{n\rightarrow \infty} a_{i,n} \]

This is true if and only if certain conditions hold.

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