Sunday, 16 October 2016

calculus - Spot mistake in finding limlimitsxto1left(fracxx1frac1log(x)right)



This is the limit I'm trying to solve: limx1(xx11log(x))




I thought: let's define x=k+1, so that k0 as x1.



Then it becomes:
limk0(k+1k1log(k+1))
and then,
limk0(k+1k1log(k+1)×kk)=limk0(k+1k1k).
Which results in kk , that should be 1, but wolfram says it's 12...



Did I do something illegal?


Answer



Yes, the illegal part is this step:
limk01log(k+1)k1k=limk01k




I see that you applied the known limit
limt0log(1+t)t=1
but the fact is that
limxαf(x)g(x)=limxαf(x)×limxαg(x)
is only valid when both limit are finite. In your case you're left with limk01k, which not only is not finite, but does not exist entirely.






If you are looking for a way to evaluate your limit, I'd suggest MacLauring (that is, a Taylor expansion around x=0), which is the simplest and most elegant way. But since you said that you can't use Taylor yet, I fear your only possibility is going with L'Hospital.


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