Probably an old chestnut, but it was new to me

Calculus Level 2

lim n n sin π n = ? \large \lim_{n\to\infty} n\sin \frac{\pi}{n} = \, ?

Give your answer to 2 decimal places.


Occurred to me in thinking about this and the problems that inspired it.
A harder problem that builds on (but precedes) this one can be found here .


The answer is 3.14.

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4 solutions

Chew-Seong Cheong
Dec 25, 2016

A better solution from @Brian Charlesworth , see comment below.

L = lim n n sin π n Multiply up and down by π n = lim n π sin π n π n Note that lim x 0 sin x x = 1 = π 3.14 \begin{aligned} L & = \lim_{n \to \infty} n\sin \frac \pi n & \small \color{#3D99F6} \text{Multiply up and down by }\frac \pi n \\ & = \lim_{n \to \infty} \frac {\pi {\color{#3D99F6}\sin \frac \pi n}}{\color{#3D99F6}\frac \pi n} & \small \color{#3D99F6} \text{Note that } \lim_{x \to 0} \frac {\sin x}x = 1 \\ & = \pi \approx \boxed{3.14} \end{aligned}


L = lim n n sin π n Divide up and down with n = lim n sin π n 1 n A 0/0 cases, L’H o ˆ pital’s rule applies. = lim n π n 2 cos π n 1 n 2 Differentiate up and down w.r.t. n = lim n π cos π n = π cos 0 = π 3.14 \begin{aligned} L & = \lim_{n \to \infty} n\sin \frac \pi n & \small \color{#3D99F6} \text{Divide up and down with }n \\ & = \lim_{n \to \infty} \frac {\sin \frac \pi n}{\frac 1n} & \small \color{#3D99F6} \text{A 0/0 cases, L'Hôpital's rule applies.} \\ & = \lim_{n \to \infty} \frac {- \frac \pi {n^2} \cos \frac \pi n}{-\frac 1{n^2}} & \small \color{#3D99F6} \text{Differentiate up and down w.r.t. }n \\ & = \lim_{n \to \infty} \pi \cos \frac \pi n \\ & = \pi \cos 0 \\ & = \pi \approx \boxed{3.14} \end{aligned}

In the interest of avoiding L'Hopital's, I suppose we could just write the limit as

L = π × lim n sin π n π n = π × lim x 0 sin ( x ) x = π L = \displaystyle \pi \times \lim_{n \to \infty}\dfrac{\sin\dfrac{\pi}{n}}{\dfrac{\pi}{n}} = \pi \times \lim_{x \to 0} \dfrac{\sin(x)}{x} = \pi ,

where x = π n 0 x = \dfrac{\pi}{n} \to 0 as n n \to \infty .

Brian Charlesworth - 4 years, 5 months ago

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Merry Christmas, Brian.

Chew-Seong Cheong - 4 years, 5 months ago

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Thank you! Merry Christmas to you too. :)

Brian Charlesworth - 4 years, 5 months ago

Yes, you are right. A better solution.

Chew-Seong Cheong - 4 years, 5 months ago
Atul Kumar Ashish
Dec 27, 2016

We can also derive this formula for π 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...

Paul Hindess - 4 years, 5 months ago
Steven Chase
Dec 25, 2016

s i n ( x ) x sin(x) \approx x for small values of x

This is incorrect, by your logic, lim x 0 x sin x x 3 = lim x 0 x x x 3 = 0 1 6 \displaystyle \lim_{x\to0} \dfrac{x -\sin x}{x^3} = \lim_{x\to0}\dfrac{x - x}{x^3} = 0 \ne \dfrac16 .

Pi Han Goh - 4 years, 5 months ago

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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.

Steven Chase - 4 years, 5 months ago

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It works because you're applying the Maclaurin series , sin x = x + O ( x 2 ) \sin x = x + O(x^2) .

Pi Han Goh - 4 years, 5 months ago
Justin Wu
Jan 16, 2017

On the unit circle, we have s i n π n sin{\frac{\pi}{n}} is the height of a small right triangle with angle π n \frac{\pi}{n} . Then, if we have n n of these lengths they approximate the length of the curve of the unit circle above the x axis which has length π \pi .

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