This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try
refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and,
finally, (c)
loading the
non-javascript version of this page
. We're sorry about the hassle.
In the interest of avoiding L'Hopital's, I suppose we could just write the limit as
L = π × n → ∞ lim n π sin n π = π × x → 0 lim x sin ( x ) = π ,
where x = n π → 0 as n → ∞ .
Log in to reply
Merry Christmas, Brian.
Log in to reply
Thank you! Merry Christmas to you too. :)
Yes, you are right. A better solution.
We can also derive this formula for π geometrically.
That was the thing I found interesting, though having seen Steven's simple approach, I'm not sure many people will latch on to the geometry...
s i n ( x ) ≈ x for small values of x
This is incorrect, by your logic, x → 0 lim x 3 x − sin x = x → 0 lim x 3 x − x = 0 = 6 1 .
Log in to reply
Fair enough. I'm aware of L'Hopital's Rule as well. When I saw this one, my first instinct was to do the small-angle substitution. Interesting that it happened to work.
Log in to reply
It works because you're applying the Maclaurin series , sin x = x + O ( x 2 ) .
On the unit circle, we have s i n n π is the height of a small right triangle with angle n π . Then, if we have n of these lengths they approximate the length of the curve of the unit circle above the x axis which has length π .
Problem Loading...
Note Loading...
Set Loading...
A better solution from @Brian Charlesworth , see comment below.
L = n → ∞ lim n sin n π = n → ∞ lim n π π sin n π = π ≈ 3 . 1 4 Multiply up and down by n π Note that x → 0 lim x sin x = 1
L = n → ∞ lim n sin n π = n → ∞ lim n 1 sin n π = n → ∞ lim − n 2 1 − n 2 π cos n π = n → ∞ lim π cos n π = π cos 0 = π ≈ 3 . 1 4 Divide up and down with n A 0/0 cases, L’H o ˆ pital’s rule applies. Differentiate up and down w.r.t. n