1|Page

NOTE: typo differential calculus methods. The suggested limit

on page on 6 generates a number of useful limits describing growth or
(first line): decay1. Numerous examples are provided.
fraction 1/0 is For example, two well-known exponential limits
not that can be derived from a general limit are:
indeterminate

A General
Limit for ———
Exponentia or
l Functions ———

Francis J.
O’Brien, Jr.,
Ph.D.
Aquidneck
Indian Council Note that it is possible to define an infinite limit by a
Newport, RI corresponding 0 limit. This is explained below. The limits
March 14, in this paper are positive or going in the positive direction,
2013
The limit and derivative for a general exponential function
are also provided.
Calculus is
built on the
notion of
limits
(Finney &
Thomas, p.
77)

Introduction

In this
paper we
demonstrate a
general limit
for
exponential
functions by 1
For a good article that describes some practical uses of exponential
elementary growth and decay functions, see the website,
http://www.willnichols.me.uk/a/exp/ar01s01s01.html.

 Francis J. O’Brien, Jr., 2013 <> Aquidneck Indian Council<> All rights reserved .
2|Page

by log differentiation (with a small “trick”) and (b) the

more general method of L’Hôpital’s Rule2 for
Standa differentiating “indeterminate forms” of fractions of
rd calculus continuous functions. We recommend the YouTube lecture
texts by Bers MIT 18.01 (Lecture 35, Prof. David Jerison) for an
(pp. 379 ff.) excellent detailed explanation of the mathematical
and Finney approach presented to undergraduate students of calculus.
and Thomas Search for “MIT 18.01 Lec 35”.
(pp. 481 ff.) as
well as others
provide General Exponential Limit
excellent
coverage for A general limit for simple exponential functions is:
limits of
exponential
functions that
tend to 0 or ,
. There are where are some arbitrary fixed constants.
also many
online NOTE: As indicated below, the limit can be expressed in
YouTube alternative ways by re-arranging the parameters. We
resources such use the one stated above.
as The Khan
Academy for
learning about Log Differentiation
limits. Later
we indicate a The first approach to derive the general limit is
website that log differentiation with a clever trick. Let the limit be
calculates called y. Take the natural log of y, re–define the limit to go
limits which is to 0, substitute, differentiate, and get y back by
useful to exponentiation. Applying the steps,
check answers
derived by
hand.

——
——
——

Demon
strating the
general limit
presented next
can be done in
two ways—(a)
2
An alternate spelling for this French name is L’Hospital.

 Francis J. O’Brien, Jr., 2013 <> Aquidneck Indian Council<> All rights reserved .
3|Page

we see that,

is the derivative of evaluated at ; i.e.,

Substituting in (4),
From the limit
in step (4) the
“trick” is to
add the
quantity
= 0 in the
numerator
which does
not change the
limit,

This
difference
quotient now
looks like a
log derivative
with a
constant
outside. If we
recall the
definition of
the derivative
of

 Francis J. O’Brien, Jr., 2013 <> Aquidneck Indian Council<> All rights reserved .
4|Page

—such as for —the method known as

Thus,
L’Hôpital’s Rule is the logical alternative to try.
L’Hôpital’s Rule is applied by differentiating
Lastly, by
“indeterminate”
definition,
,
which proves forms of fractions of two continuous functions . For
the limit,
example, the limit

NOTE: The
reader can reduces to if the limit 0 is substituted.
verify that the
general limit This meaningless limit is called “indeterminate” and cannot
just derived be evaluated in this form.
can be The functions of an indeterminate
expressed in form are differentiated independently in the L’Hôpital
other ways method of limit evaluation,
such as:

Apply log
differentiation
to
demonstrate.

L’Hôp
ital’s Rule

This
log
differentiation
method is
straightforwar
d but does not
work for all
limits. When it
does not work

 Francis J. O’Brien, Jr., 2013 <> Aquidneck Indian Council<> All rights reserved .
5|Page

Source: Wolfram Mathematica,

http://www.wolframalpha.com/

NOTE: As textbooks point out, L’Hôpital’s Rule may be

applied repeatedly until a clear answer appears provided
that after each round of differentiation you still have an
L’Hôpital’s
indeterminate form based on the original functions
Rule
Sometimes L’Hôpital’s Rule cannot find the limit in which
case other means are required such as graphical plots,
The above series expansions or other methods.
limit by the
method of Common indeterminate forms of functions
L’Hôpital’s that can be analyzed by L’Hôpital’s Rule
Rule is: (whether they be combined products, fractions, sums or
differences for algebraic or transcendental functions)
include the types of:

The following
plot shows the
limit clearly
(Fig. A) by
inspection of
the curve at

Fig. A.
approa
ches –1.

 Francis J. O’Brien, Jr., 2013 <> Aquidneck Indian Council<> All rights reserved .
6|Page

indeterminate of type . L’Hôpital’s Rule, by

differentiation and the Product Rule for limits, gives the
. (See Bers, answer of 0 indicating that grows faster than as x
pp. 132 ff. and
pp. 547 ff. for increases. A plot of by x will show this intuitively
rules, (Fig B., below).
guidelines and
examples in
dealing with
infinite
limits3). Also,
the “type” can x
change if the
original
functions in
the form of a
Fig. B. approaches 0.
product
for Source: Wolfram
instance need Mathematica,
to be re- http://www.wolframalpha.com/
expressed to
create a NOTE: L’Hôpital’s Rule is a delicate tool which must be
fraction of an used with great care. It is important to understand when
indeterminate L’Hôpital’s Rule is not appropriate (or necessary). For
example, consider the limit,
form
For example,
the limit type

Setting the limit x to 0 in the fraction gives the answer

when without further analysis. This means the limit of the
expressed as fraction is not “indeterminate” and, therefore, L’Hôpital’s
Rule is not valid. If L’Hôpital’s Rule is applied mistakenly
to the limit by differentiating numerator and denominator
becomes
3
But some
infinite limit
forms of
functions
are
not indeterminate
such as :

As one example,

 Francis J. O’Brien, Jr., 2013 <> Aquidneck Indian Council<> All rights reserved .
7|Page

terms
separately, the
incorrect and, since we need a fraction of an indeterminate form to
answer of apply the L’Hôpital method, algebraically flip the
outside the log term to form the equivalent expression,
results
(example from
Bers, p. 548).

A
pplyin
g
L’Hôp This common operation for exponential limits gives us an
ital’s indeterminate fractional form of type
Rule

The
general limit
for
i
s turned into a
fraction of
indeterminate Now, take separate derivatives with respect to n of the
form by taking numerator and denominator functions ;
the log of the
limit and the chain rule is needed for numerator term, .
adjusting as
needed to The result by L’Hôpital’s Rule will be,
form a fraction
of functions.
This is a
standard
approach for a
limit that has
an exponent
outside. For
this method,
we start above
at step (2),

 Francis J. O’Brien, Jr., 2013 <> Aquidneck Indian Council<> All rights reserved .
8|Page

example, for relative growth comparison of two functions

such as, which is a case. This limit is derived
below in the Appendix using a number of clever
manipulations. Some limits of indeterminate form can be
done without either method. See O’Brien (2013) who
analyzes a complicated limit using only Laws of
Exponents and limit rules.
NOTE: The
alternate NOTE: to obtain the equivalent limiting form of
forms of the
limit for the limit going to 0, we re-define by
mentioned
earlier can be letting which indicates the new limit will now be
derived by
L’Hôpital’s so that, re- writing the limit,
Rule.
Thus,
both log .
differentiation
and
L’Hôpital’s
Rule can Applying the 4 steps of log differentiation above will show
prove the the result. Now, if desired we can
general limit re–state the result in terms of
When it
. L’Hôpital’s Rule for the log of the limit
can be
applied, log
differentiation shows the same result for indeterminate form . This
is usually the process was done to
easier method
to employ,
especially for
complicated
limits
(exemplified
below in the
last section).

L’Hôpi
tal’s Rule,
however, is
the more
general
approach—for

 Francis J. O’Brien, Jr., 2013 <> Aquidneck Indian Council<> All rights reserved .
9|Page

reasoning shown earlier, for the same limit going to 0, set

obtain the 0–
limits of
at the
beginning of
the paper.
NOTE: To
obtain the or in terms of ,
decay form
we let
in the
general limit
and by log differentiation or L’Hôpital’s Rule.
proceed as
follows: Other Limits

We can obtain a number of other limits for

elementary exponential functions from the
general limit,

or

This leads to

L’Hôpital’s
Rule also
shows the
answer by
creating the
indeterminate
fractional
form from the
limit as
explained
above for

By the
same

 Francis J. O’Brien, Jr., 2013 <> Aquidneck Indian Council<> All rights reserved .
10 | P a g e

The trick works when the base term of the function is of the
form
and the n terms cancel. It would not work on the
by substitution limit which never converges, as a simple plot of
of parameters
in and the function will show4.
adjusting the The “trick” is useful also for the 0-limit form,
terms in the
limit by the same principle, .
expression to
satisfy the But it would not work for
desired result.
Sometimes
this involves Examples by General Limit
trial and error.

NOTE: An The following examples are not derived but they can be
intuitive checked by hand calculations5.
“trick” to
verify and  If we want set in
create these
elementary or
limits for
exponential . This was shown
functions is to earlier.
recognize that o NOTE: switching the roles of will
in,
give the same limit of as the reader
can verify
, we can look
at the product
of the inside
term and the
exponent, and
by algebra,

(the n terms
cancel) which
is the
term in the 4
The Sandwich Theorem for Sequences (Finney and Thomas, pp. 580
derivation . ff.) is an advanced method which will evaluate limits of this kind. Or,
the log of the limit shows
5
One excellent online limit calculator is found at the website,
http://www.numberempire.com (“Limit Calculator”).

 Francis J. O’Brien, Jr., 2013 <> Aquidneck Indian Council<> All rights reserved .
11 | P a g e

 The  The decay forms of the limit are:

limit
is
obtaine
d by
making  The limit is obtained by setting or

, For the decay form, use

since
The limit going to 0 is

 The well-known limit,

o
NOTE results by
:
Th setting in . This is a
e
rea definition of that can be used to compute
der to as many decimal places as desired for large n.
can Another formula comes from the (infinite series)
ver expansion, for n as
ify
that large as desired.
the
 is achieved by
foll
owi
ng setting in .
lim
o The decay form is
it
goi
ng
to
0
is
als
o
cor
rect
:

 Francis J. O’Brien, Jr., 2013 <> Aquidneck Indian Council<> All rights reserved .
12 | P a g e

NOTE: initially set which gives

The reader can at this point. Next we multiple both sides by to
verify that
give which by the Laws of Exponents is
the desired limit. By the intuitive “trick” it seems
correct since the algebraic product
can be

written
equivalently
as, o The decay form of the limit is

Here the “trick”

indicates

NOTE: Analysis will show it to be correct.

The
limiting
values of  For example,
in
limit results from setting
calculation
s are found in .
by simple
inspection;

etc.

 A
more
complicate
d limit

for any
constants
is
done by
trial and
error. In
the general
limit we

 Francis J. O’Brien, Jr., 2013 <> Aquidneck Indian Council<> All rights reserved .
13 | P a g e

 In the same manner as above,

o Th
e
0–
lim
o For the 0-limits, flip the n terms.
it
for
ms  The usefulness of the 4-step log differentiation
are method is appreciated by deriving the limit,
der
ive
d
by
flip o Set .
pin
g Then, derive the limit using L’Hôpital’s Rule which
requires more than one application of the Rule. The
in 0-limit (by flipping the n terms) using L’Hôpital’s
Rule will also be challenging in comparison to log
to differentiation.
obt
ain  A general exponential function has a limit
the similar to which is a special case of . We can
pos
use the limit for to get the limit. By
itiv
e definition, and by Laws of Exponents,
and
neg
ativ
e
exp
one
ntia
l
for
ms:

 Francis J. O’Brien, Jr., 2013 <> Aquidneck Indian Council<> All rights reserved .
14 | P a g e

form is obtained by flipping n in the infinite

Recall, limit,

Then,
and, the decay form is,

Note Log differentiation or L’Hôpital’s Rule will show the limits

that if is set for and as correct.
to the limit
for results
from since NOTE: The reader can verify by L’Hôpital the following
(whic related limits:
h can be
shown by log
differentiation
or L’Hôpital’s
Rule for the
limit of e).

o Th
e
0–
lim
it

 Francis J. O’Brien, Jr., 2013 <> Aquidneck Indian Council<> All rights reserved .
15 | P a g e

a for computing continuous compound interest and

inspecting the infinite limiting form; try to
 determine the exponential form it takes by
substituting parameters for the general limit derived
in this paper.
.

o
From this
limit
we can
obtain
the
derivati
ve:

and, if

 Contin
uous
compo
und
Interest
. The
reader
is
invited
to look
up the
formul

 Francis J. O’Brien, Jr., 2013 <> Aquidneck Indian Council<> All rights reserved .
16 | P a g e

APPENDI An intuitive approach to observing the limit

behavior begins by plotting the ratio of the functions.
X Figure 1 is a plot showing the limit for . It is clear
that as x increases, goes to 0. Larger values of n
can be tried with the same result.
Proof of
Limit by
L’Hôpital’s
Rule

In this
appendix we
show a proof x
of this
interesting Figure1. Plot of which tends to 0.
limit by the
method of Source: Wolfram Mathematica,
http://www.wolframalpha.com/.
L’Hôpital’s
Rule for
Two approaches can be made to show the limit by
indeterminate
L’Hôpital’s Rule for or any n— a hard way and an
forms by
easy way. For one way is by taking successive
derivatives.
derivatives of the functions until an indeterminate
The limit is
obviously form no longer exists and the limit can be clearly evaluated.
indeterminate The first application of L’Hôpital’s Rule shows,
of type
and cannot be
evaluated
directly. The
limit
expression
shows that x is
a moving
variable and n
is any fixed
constant no
matter how
small or large,
say a positive
integer,

 Francis J. O’Brien, Jr., 2013 <> Aquidneck Indian Council<> All rights reserved .
17 | P a g e

cannot be predicted beforehand. Surely an easier approach

exists.
= The second approach is sophisticated and uses
multiple rules for limits, Laws of Exponents, and
derivatives. We state each step as we go along to show the
development of the derivation.
To show the easier method6, we first restate the
limit in an equivalent form,
.
Since the
fraction is still
we use
L’Hôpital
again on the
which is correct by the Laws of exponents. Since n is any
limit of , integer we can expand the limit n times,

This
demonstration
shows that

after two
applications of
L’Hôpital’s
Rule .
But
what if we had
to evaluate

That proof
would require
100 individual
derivatives of
before
we obtained a 6
Another approach is by inverse functions. Set and
final limiting
value which and by L’Hôpital’s Rule solve the limit, as

shown in text by integer expansion .

 Francis J. O’Brien, Jr., 2013 <> Aquidneck Indian Council<> All rights reserved .
18 | P a g e

. Do this for each of the n product terms. Then,

By the Product collect the constant terms, and restate all of the n limit
Rule for terms as one limit term by the Laws of Exponents for final
limits, this can evaluation. Repeating all steps:
be expressed
as a product of
n limit terms,

Note that this

last expression
is n
indeterminate
forms versus
the one we
started with. It
is legitimate
now to apply
L’Hôpital’s
Rule to each
individual
limit; that is,
differentiate
the

functions
separately,

using the
Chain Rule for

 Francis J. O’Brien, Jr., 2013 <> Aquidneck Indian Council<> All rights reserved .
19 | P a g e

then the following limit can be solved per above

procedure,

The reader can work out the details to show:

Hint: expand the limit algebraically times.

This
concludes the
proof we
sought,

which
demonstrates
the power of
L’Hôpital’s
Rule for
finding an
answer in a
much faster
way.

_________

NOTE: If n is
a fraction of
form

 Francis J. O’Brien, Jr., 2013 <> Aquidneck Indian Council<> All rights reserved .
20 | P a g e

Indeterminate forms— L'Hospital's rule.

Other http://www.youtube.com.
approaches are
possible
including the O’Brien, F. J. Jr. Proof that by Stirling’s
inverse Approximation for Factorials, 2013.
relations http://www.docstoc.com/profile/waabu.
method,

__________. Proof that by Stirling’s

Approximation for Factorials (Part II), 2013.
http://www.docstoc.com/profile/waabu.
References

The Khan Academy.

Bers, L. https://www.youtube.com/user/khanacademy.
Calculus, Vol.
1, 1969. Holt,
Rinehart and
Winston, Inc.

Finney, R.L.
and G.B.
Thomas, Jr.
Calculus,
1990.
Addison-
Wesley
Publishing Co.

“Limit
Calculator”.
http://www.nu
mberempire.c
om.
The
Academy
MIT 18.01.
Single
Variable
Calculus, Fall
2007, Lecture
35:

 Francis J. O’Brien, Jr., 2013 <> Aquidneck Indian Council<> All rights reserved .