Shall we continue?

Calculus Level 1

Let f ( x ) f(x) be a function that exists at a point a a . Therefore, lim x a f ( x ) \displaystyle \lim\limits_{x\to a}f(x) must exist. True of false?

True False

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2 solutions

A counterexample is the function shown in this graph:

By intuition, we see that at x = 2 x = -2 , there's a "gap" in the curve and the function is discontinuous. So the lim x 2 \displaystyle \lim_{x \to -2} does not exist. The same can be seen when x = 3 x=3 .

In conclusion, if lim x x 0 + f ( x ) = lim x x 0 f ( x ) = f ( x 0 ) \displaystyle \lim_{x \to x_{0}^+} f(x) = \lim_{x \to x_{0}^-} f(x) = f(x_{0}) , the limit lim x x 0 \displaystyle \lim_{x \to x_{0}} exist . So the statement is F a l s e \boxed{False} .

This just shows that x |x| is not differentiable at x = 0 x=0 . The value is defined, and the function is continuous; there's no problem at all with the limit.

Chris Lewis - 9 months, 1 week ago

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nice solve

Ömer Ertürk - 5 months, 1 week ago
James Watson
Sep 6, 2020

f ( a ) f(a) may exist, but whether f f is continuous at a a is unknown. If f f is not continuous at a a , then lim x a f ( x ) \displaystyle \lim\limits_{x\to a}f(x) doesn't exist. To conclude, if f ( a ) f(a) exists, the limit may or may not exist so the statement is false \green{\boxed{\text{false}}}

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