Wednesday, 27 March 2013

limits - Derivatives of functions composition: limxrightarrow8fracroot3ofx2root3of3x+33



I have to calculate the folowing:



lim




I am not allowed to used anything else than the definition of the derivative of a function f(a) with respect to x, that is



f'(a) = \lim_{x\rightarrow a} \frac{f(x) - f(a)}{x - a}



After some thinking I found out we could define two function g(x) = \frac{x-3}{3} and f(x) = \root{3}\of{3x+3} edit: this should actually be h(x)



Then h(g(x)) = \root{3}\of{x}, and h(8) = 3\\ and finally: h(g(8)) = 2



If f(x) is the first function (at the beginning), I could now rewrite it's limit as:




\lim_{x\rightarrow 8} \frac{h(g(x)) - h(g(8))}{h(x) - h(8)} (1)






My question is:



If we note c(x) = (h(g(x))), Does it make sense to write h(x) \rightarrow h(8) under the lim symbol instead of x\rightarrow 8? Is the above limit equal to the derivative of c with respect to h? Does this even make sense since h is applied "after" g?







If I just apply the chain rule:



\frac{dc}{dx} = \frac{dc}{dh}\frac{dh}{dx} \Leftrightarrow \frac{dc}{dh} = \frac{dc}{dx}\frac{dx}{dh}



then I find a wrong limit:



We are looking for \frac{dc}{dh}. So we can calculate




\frac{dc}{dx} = \frac{1}{3\root{3}\of{(3x+3)^2}} \\ \frac{dh}{dx} = \frac{3}{3\root{3}\of{(3x+3)^2}} \\ \Rightarrow \frac{dc}{dh} = \frac{1}{3}



So the limit should be one third, but it actually turns out to be \frac{3}{4}.



Why can't we write the limit (1) as \frac{dc}{dh}, and more importantly, how can I get the correct limit using the definition of the derivative?







PS: I'm not sure if it's even possible because the exercise doesn't say which method to use (I know it's possible using the factorization of a^3 - b^3). I just find it would be really cool to solve the exercise this way






Edit



I have made a mistake on the derivative of h(g(x)) = \root{3}\of{x}. I used the chain rule c'(x) = h'(g(x))\cdot g'(x) and that led to a mistake. I should simply have derived c(x) = \root{3}\of{x}. So the actual derivative is \frac{1}{3\root{3}\of{x^2}}. This leads to the correct limit, as showed in farruhota's answer.


Answer




You want to calculate the limit with the help of a composite function:
\lim_{x\rightarrow 8}\frac{\root{3}\of{x} - 2}{\root{3}\of{3x+3}-3}.



There are two problems in your solution:



1) You actually implied f(x)\equiv h(x). So, h(x) = \root{3}\of{3x+3}, g(x) = \frac{x-3}{3}, then h(g(x))=\sqrt[3]{x} and h(g(8)) = 2.



2) The formal definition of the derivative of a composite function is: \lim_\limits{x\rightarrow a} \frac{h(g(x)) - h(g(a))}{x - a}. So:
\lim_{x\rightarrow 8} \frac{h(g(x)) - h(g(8))}{h(x) - h(8)}=\\ \lim_{x\rightarrow 8} \frac{h(g(x)) - h(g(8))}{x - 8}\cdot \lim_{x\rightarrow 8} \frac{x - 8}{h(x) - h(8)}=\\ (\sqrt[3]{x})'_{x=8}\cdot \left((\sqrt[3]{3x+3})'_{x=8}\right)^{-1} =\\ \frac{1}{3\sqrt[3]{8^2}}\cdot \left(\frac{3}{3\sqrt[3]{(3\cdot 8+3)^2}}\right)^{-1}=\\ \frac1{12}\cdot 9=\frac34.


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