How does one evaluate the limit
$$\lim_{x\to 0} \frac{\sqrt{1-\cos{(x^2)}}}{1-\cos{x}}$$
Without using series expansion or L'hopital's rule? I know it's pretty straightforward to use a series expansion to get the limit of $\sqrt{2}$ but I wonder whether it is possible to evaluate this without such methods.
Answer
For $0<|x|<1$,
$$\begin{align}\frac{\sqrt{1-\cos(x^2)}}{1-\cos x}&=\frac{\sqrt{1-\left(1-2\sin^2\left(\frac{x^2}2\right)\right)}}{1-\left(1-2\sin^2\left(\frac x2\right)\right)}=\frac{\sqrt2\sin\left(\frac{x^2}2\right)}{2\sin^2\left(\frac x2\right)}\\
&=\left(\sqrt2\right)\left(\frac{\sin\left(\frac{x^2}2\right)}{\frac{x^2}2}\right)\left(\frac{\frac x2}{\sin\left(\frac x2\right)}\right)^2\end{align}$$
So
$$\lim_{x\rightarrow0}\frac{\sqrt{1-\cos(x^2)}}{1-\cos x}=\left(\sqrt2\right)\left(1\right)\left(1\right)^2=\sqrt2$$
No comments:
Post a Comment