LIMIT FUNCTIONS AND THE

DERIVATIVE

Malaak Oday Saad

Department of Mathematics and Computer,
College of Basic Education, University of Babylon,
Babil 51002, Iraq,
[email protected]

Ali Abbas Ibrahim

Department of Mathematics and Computer,

College of Basic Education, University of Babylon,
Babil 51002, Iraq,
[email protected]

L. Abdulhameed Qahtan Abbood Altai

Department of Mathematics and Computer,
College of Basic Education, University of Babylon,
Babil 51002, Iraq,
[email protected]
INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION
In the history of mathematics two names are prominent to share the credit
for inventing calculus, Issac Newton (1642 – 1727) and G.W. Leibnitz (1646
– 1717). Both of them independently invented calculus around the seventeenth
century. After the advent of calculus many mathematicians contributed for
further development of calculus. The rigorous concept is mainly attributed to
the great mathematicians, A.L. Cauchy, J.L.Lagrange and Karl Weierstrass.
Cauchy gave the foundation of calculus as we have now generally accepted in
our textbooks.

Cauchy used D’ Alembert’s limit concept to define the derivative of a

function. Starting with definition of a limit, Cauchy gave examples such as the
limit of

and called the limit for i 0, the “function derive’e, ́ for ́ (x)”.

Before 1900, it was thought that calculus is quite difficult to teach. So

calculus became beyond the reach of youngsters. But just in 1900, John Perry
and others in England started propagating the view that essential ideas and
methods of calculus were simple and could be taught even in schools. F.L.
Griffin, pioneered the teaching of calculus to first year students. This was
regarded as one of the most daring act in those days. Today not only the
mathematics but many other subjects such as Physics, Chemistry, Economics
and Biological Sciences are enjoying the fruits of calculus.

In mathematics, the is a fundamental concept

in calculus and analysis concerning the behavior of that function near a
particular input .Formal definitions, first devised in the early 19th century, are
1
INTRODUCTION

given below. Informally, a function f assigns an output f(x) to every input x.

We say that the function has a limit L at an input p, if f(x) gets closer and
closer to L as x moves closer and closer to p. More specifically, when f is
applied to any input sufficiently close to p, the output value is
forced arbitrarily close to L. On the other hand, if some inputs very close
to p are taken to outputs that stay a fixed distance apart, then we say the
limit does not exist .The notion of a limit has many applications in modern
calculus. In particular, the many definitions of continuity employ the concept
of limit: roughly, a function is continuous if all of its limits agree with the
values of the function. The concept of limit also appears in the definition of
the derivative: in the calculus of one variable, this is the limiting value of
the slope of secant lines to the graph of a function.

2
CHAPTER ONE LIMITS FUNCTION

CHAPTER ONE
1. Definition

3
CHAPTER ONE LIMITS FUNCTION

2. Limits Theorems

4
CHAPTER ONE LIMITS FUNCTION

5
CHAPTER ONE LIMITS FUNCTION

Figure (1) An ᵋ- ᵟ Box for the unit step function.

3. Algebra of Limits
There are a set of limiting process includes addition, subtraction,
multiplication and division as shown in following.

6
CHAPTER ONE LIMITS FUNCTION

4- Limits of Polynomials and Rational Functions

A function f is said to be a polynomial function of degree n f(x)

Where are real numbers that not equal zero for some natural number n.

7
CHAPTER ONE LIMITS FUNCTION

5- Limits of Trigonometric Functions

8
CHAPTER ONE LIMITS FUNCTION

Figure (2) Limits of two different functions

Figure (3) Limits of three different functions

9
CHAPTER ONE LIMITS FUNCTION

6- Functions of a single variable

Suppose f : R → R is defined on the real line and p, L ∈ R. One would say

that the limit of . f, as x approaches p, is L and written

, or alternatively as:

f(x) [ ]

If the following property holds:

For every real ε > 0, there exists a real δ > 0 such that for all real x, 0 < | x − p |
< δ implies that | f(x) − L | < ε.[6]

A more general definition applies for functions defined on subsets of the

real line. Let (a, b) be an open interval in R, and p a point of (a, b). Let f be
a real-valued function defined on all of (a, b)—except possibly at p itself. It is
then said that the limit of. f as x approaches p is L, if for every real ε > 0, there
exists a real δ > 0 such that 0 < | x − p | < δ and x ∈ (a, b) implies that | f(x)
− L | < ε.

Here, note that the value of the limit does not depend on f being defined
at p, nor on the value f(p)—if it is defined.

The letters ε and δ can be understood as "error" and "distance". In fact,

Cauchy used ε as an abbreviation for "error" in some of his work, [2] though

in his definition of continuity, he used an infinitesimal rather than

either ε or δ . In these terms, the error (ε) in the measurement of the value at
the limit can be made as small as desired, by reducing the distance (δ) to the
limit point. As discussed below, this definition also works for functions in a

10
CHAPTER ONE LIMITS FUNCTION

more general context. The idea that δ and ε represent distances helps suggest
these generalizations.

 Existence and one-sided limits

Alternatively, x may approach p from above (right) or below (left), in which

case the limits may be written as

Or

respectively. If these limits exist at p and are equal there, then this can be
referred to as the limit of f(x) at p.[7] If the one-sided limits exist at p, but are
unequal, then there is no limit at p (i.e., the limit at p does not exist). If either
one-sided limit does not exist at p, then the limit at p also does not exist.

A formal definition is as follows. The limit of f(x) as x approaches p from

above is L if, for every ε > 0, there exists aδ> 0 such that
|f(x) − L| < ε whenever 0 < x − p < δ. The limit of f(x) as x approaches p from
below is L if, for every ε > 0, there exists aδ> 0 such that
|f(x) − L| < ε whenever 0 < p − x < δ.

If the limit does not exist, then the oscillation of. f at p is non-zero.

11
CHAPTER ONE LIMITS FUNCTION

Figure (4) Existence and one-sided limits

The limit as: x → x0+ ≠ x → x0−. Therefore, the limit as x → x0 does not
exist.

 More general subsets

Apart from open intervals, limits can be defined for functions on arbitrary
subsets of R, as follows (Bartle & Sherbert 2000): let f be a real-valued
function defined on a subset S of the real line. Let p be a limit point of S—that
is, p is the limit of some sequence of elements of S distinct from p. The limit
of. f, as x approaches p from values in S, is L, if for every ε > 0,there exists
a δ > 0 such that 0 < |x − p| < δ and x ∈ S implies ,that |f(x)− L< ε .
This limit is often written as:

The condition that f be defined on S is that S be a subset of the domain of f.

This generalization includes as special cases limits on an interval, as well as
left-handed limits of real-valued functions (e.g., by taking S to be an open
interval of the form( ), and right-handed limits (e.g., by taking S to be an
open interval of the form ). It also extends the notion of one-sided limits to the

12
CHAPTER ONE LIMITS FUNCTION

included endpoints of (half-)closed intervals, so the square root

function f(x)=√x can have limit 0 as x approaches 0 from above.

 Deleted versus non-deleted limits

The definition of limit given here does not depend on how (or whether) f is
defined at p. Bartle (1967) refers to this as a deleted limit, because it excludes
the value of f at p. The corresponding non-deleted limit does depend on the
value of f at p, if p is in the domain of f

 Number L is the non-deleted limit of f as x approaches p,

If for every ε > 0, there exists a δ > 0 such that

| x − p | < δ and x ∈ Dm(f) implies | f(x) − L | < ε. The definition is the same,
except that the neighborhood | x − p | < δ now includes the point p, in contrast
to the deleted neighborhood 0 < | x − p | < δ. This makes the definition of a
non-deleted limit less general. One of the advantages of working with non-
deleted limits is that they allow to state the theorem about limits of
compositions without any constraints on the functions (other than the
existence of their non-deleted limits) (Hubbard (2015).

 Limits at countable many points

The function

F(x)={{

has a limit at any x-coordinate of the form , where n is any integer.

Functions on metric spaces. Suppose M and N are subsets of metric

spaces A and B, respectively, and f : M → N is defined between M and N,

13
CHAPTER ONE LIMITS FUNCTION

with x ∈ M, p a limit point of M and L ∈ N. It is said that the limit

f f as x approaches p is L and write

if the following property holds:

 For every ε > 0, there exists a δ > 0 such that d B(f(x), L) < ε
whenever 0 < dA(x, p) < δ.

Again, note that p need not be in the domain of f, nor does L need to be in the
range of f, and even if f(p) is defined it need not be equal to L.

An alternative definition using the concept of neighborhood is as follows:

if, for every neighborhood V of L in B, there exists a

neighborhood U of p in A such that f(U ∩ M − {p}) ⊆ V.

7- Functions on topological spaces

Suppose X,Y are topological spaces with Y a Hausdorff space. Let p be

a limit point of Ω ⊆ X, and L ∈Y. For a function f : Ω → Y, it is said that
the limit of f as x approaches p is L (i.e., f(x) → L as x → p) and written.

if the following property holds:

For every open neighborhood V of L, there exists an open

neighborhood U of p such that f(U ∩ Ω − {p}) ⊆ V.

This last part of the definition can also be phrased "there exists an
open punctured neighborhood U of p such that f(U∩Ω) ⊆ V ".
14
CHAPTER ONE LIMITS FUNCTION

Note that the domain of f does not need to contain p. If it does, then the value
of f at p is irrelevant to the definition of the limit. In particular, if the domain
of f is X − {p} (or all of X), then the limit of f as x → p exists and is equal
to L if, for all subsets Ω of X with limit point p, the limit of the restriction
of f to Ω exists and is equal to L. Sometimes this criterion is used to establish
the non-existence of the two-sided limit of a function on R by showing that
the one-sided limits either fail to exist or do not agree. Such a view is
fundamental in the field of general topology, where limits and continuity at a
point are defined in terms of special families of subsets, called filters, or
generalized sequences known as nets .

Alternatively, the requirement that Y be a Hausdorff space can be relaxed to

the assumption that Y be a general topological space, but then the limit of a
function may not be unique. In particular, one can no longer talk about the
limit of a function at a point, but rather a limit or the set of limits at a point.

A function is continuous at a limit point p of and in its domain if and only

if f(p) is the (or, in the general case, a) limit of f(x) as x tends to p.

8- Limits involving infinity

 Limits at infinity

For f(x) a real function, the limit of f as x approaches infinity is L, denoted

means that for all 𝜀 , there exists c such
that| | 𝜀 whenever x > c. Or, symbolically:

𝜀 | | 𝜀

Similarly, the limit of f as x approaches negative infinity is L, denoted

15
CHAPTER ONE LIMITS FUNCTION

means that for all 𝜀 there exists c such that

| | 𝜀 whenever x < c. Or, symbolically.

𝜀 | | 𝜀

The limit of this function at infinity exists.

 Infinite limits

For a function whose values grow without bound, the function diverges and
the usual limit does not exist. However, in this case one may introduce limits
with infinite values. For example, the statement the limit
of. f as x approaches a is infinity, denoted

means that for all N there exists 𝛿 such that

f(x) whenever 0 | | 𝛿

These ideas can be combined in a natural way to produce definitions for

different combinations, such as

Limits involving infinity are connected with the concept of asymptotes.

These notions of a limit attempt to provide a metric space interpretation to
limits at infinity. In fact, they are consistent with the topological space
definition of limit if

 a neighborhood of −∞ is defined to contain an interval [−∞, c) for

some c ∈ R,

 a neighborhood of ∞ is defined to contain an interval (c, ∞]

where c ∈ R, and

16
CHAPTER ONE LIMITS FUNCTION

 a neighborhood of a ∈ R is defined in the normal way metric space R.

In this case, R is a topological space and any function of the

form f: X → Y with X, Y⊆ R is subject to the topological definition of a limit.
Note that with this topological definition, it is easy to define infinite limits at
finite points, which have not been defined above in the metric sense.

9- Alternative notation

Many authors[8] allow for the protectively extended real line to be used as a
way to include infinite values as well as extended real line. With this notation,
the extended real line is given as R ∪ {−∞, +∞} and the protectively extended
real line is R ∪ {∞} where a neighborhood of ∞ is a set of the form {x: |x|
> c}. The advantage is that one only needs three definitions for limits (left,
right, and central) to cover all the cases. As presented above, for a completely
rigorous account, we would need to consider 15 separate cases for each
combination of infinities (five directions: −∞, left, central, right, and +∞; three
bounds: −∞, finite, or +∞). There are also noteworthy pitfalls. For example,
when working with the extended real line, does not possess a central limit
(which is normal):

In contrast, when working with the projective real line, infinities (much
like 0) are unsigned, so, the central limit does exist in that context:

17
CHAPTER ONE LIMITS FUNCTION

10- Limits at infinity for rational functions

There are three basic rules for evaluating limits at infinity for a rational
unction f(x)= p(x)/q(x):(where p and q are polynomials):

 If the degree of p is greater than the degree of q, then the limit is

positive or negative infinity depending on the signs of the leading
coefficients

 If the degree of p and q are equal, the limit is the leading coefficient
of p divided by the leading coefficient of q;

 If the degree of p is less than the degree of q, the limit is 0. If the

limit at infinity exists, it represents a horizontal asymptote at y = L.
Polynomials do not have horizontal asymptotes; such asymptotes
may however occur with rational functions.

11- Functions of more than one variable

By noting that |x − p| represents a distance, the definition of a limit can be

extended to functions of more than one variable. In the case of a
function f : R2 → R,

If for every ε > 0 there exists a δ > 0 such that for all (x ,y) with

0 < ||(x ,y) − (p ,q)|| < δ, then |f(x ,y) − L| < ε

where ||(x ,y) − (p ,q)|| represents the Euclidean distance. This can be extended
to any number of variables.

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CHAPTER ONE LIMITS FUNCTION

12- Sequential limits

Let f : X → Y be a mapping from a topological space X into a Hausdorff

space Y, p ∈ X a limit point of X and L ∈ Y.

The sequential limit of f as x tends to p is L if, for every sequence (xn)

in X − {p} that converges to p, the sequence f(xn) converges to L.

If L is the limit (in the sense above) of f as x approaches p, then it is a

sequential limit as well, however the converse need not hold in general. If in
addition X is amortizable, then L is the sequential limit
of f as x approaches p if and only if it is the limit (in the sense above)
of f as x approaches p.

 In terms of sequences

For functions on the real line, one way to define the limit of a function is in
terms of the limit of sequences. (This definition is usually attributed to Eduard
Heine.) In this setting

if and only if for all sequences (with not equal to a for all n) converging
to the sequence . It was shown by Sierpiński in 1916 that proving the
equivalence of this definition and the definition above, requires and is
equivalent to a weak form of the axiom of choice. Note that defining what it
means for a sequence to converge to requires the epsilon, delta method.

Similarly as it was the case of Weierstrass's definition, a more general

Heine definition applies to functions defined on subsets of the real line.
Let f be a real-valued function with the domain Dm(f). Let a be the limit of a

19
CHAPTER ONE LIMITS FUNCTION

sequence of elements of Dm(f) \ {a}. Then the limit (in this sense)
of f is L as x approaches p if for every sequence ∈ Dm(f) \ {a} (so that for
all n, is not equal to a) that converges to a . This is the same as the definition
of a sequential limit in the preceding section obtained by regarding the
subset Dm(f) of R as a metric space with the induced metric.

 In non-standard calculus

In non-standard calculus the limit of a function is defined by

if and only if for all x∈ , is infinitesimal whenever is

infinitesimal. Where p ,L the hyper real numbers and x is the natural extension
of f to the non-standard real numbers. Keesler proved that such a hyper
real definition of limit reduces the quantifier complexity by two
quantifiers.[9] On the other hand, Hacek writes that for the definitions to be
valid for all hyper real numbers they must implicitly be grounded in the ε-δ
method, and claims that, from the pedagogical point of view, the hope that
non-standard calculus could be done without ε-δ methods cannot be realized
in full.[10] Bŀaszczyk et al. detail the usefulness of micro continuity in
developing a transparent definition of uniform continuity, and characterize
Hacek's criticism as a "dubious lament[11].

20
CHAPTER TWO DERIVATIVES

CHAPTER TWO
1. Definition
When we know the position of a body at various time intervals, it is possible
to find the rate at which the position of the body is changing. It is of very
general interest to know a certain parameter at various instants of time and try
to finding the rate at which it is changing. There are several real life situations
where such a process needs to be carried out. For instance, people maintaining
a reservoir need to know when will a reservoir overflow knowing the depth of
the water at several instances of time, Rocket Scientists need to compute the
precise velocity with which the satellite needs to be shot out from the rocket
knowing the height of the rocket at various times. Financial institutions need
to predict the changes in the value of a particular stock knowing its present
value. In these, and many such cases it is desirable to know how a particular
parameter is changing with respect to some other parameter.

The heart of the matter is derivative of a function at a given point in its

domain of definition.

 Definition 1

Suppose f is a real valued function and a is a point in its domain of definition.

The derivative of f at a is defined by

21
CHAPTER TWO DERIVATIVES

We now present a geometric interpretation of derivative of a

function at a point. Let y = f(x) be a function and let P = (a, f(a)) and
Q = (a + h, f(a + h) be two points close to each other on the graph of
this function. The Fig (5) is now self-explanatory.

Figure (5) Now self-explanatory

From the triangle PQR, it is clear that the ratio whose limit we are taking is
precisely equal to tan(QPR) which is the slope of the chord PQ. In the limiting
process, as h tends to 0, the point Q tends to P and we have

This is equivalent to the fact that the chord PQ tends to the tangent at P of
the curve y = f(x). Thus the limit turns out to be equal to the slope of the
tangent. Hence

22
CHAPTER TWO DERIVATIVES

For a given function f we can find the derivative at every point. If the
derivative exists at every point, it defines a new function called the derivative
of f . Formally, we define derivative of a function as follows.

 Definition 2

Suppose f is a real valued function, the function defined by

wherever the limit exists is defined to be the derivative of f at x and is

denoted by ́ (x). This definition of derivative is also called the first principle
of derivative

2. Algebra of derivative of functions

Since the very definition of derivatives involve limits in a rather direct
fashion, we expect the rules for derivatives to follow closely that of limits. We
collect these in the following theorem.

 Theorem (1) Let f and g be two functions such that their derivatives are
defined in a common domain. Then

23
CHAPTER TWO DERIVATIVES

(i) Derivative of sum of two functions is sum of the derivatives of the

functions.

(ii) Derivative of difference of two functions is difference of the derivatives of

the functions.

(iii) Derivative of product of two functions is given by the following product

rule.

(iv) Derivative of quotient of two functions is given by the following quotient

rule (whenever the denominator is non–zero).

The proofs of these follow essentially from the analogous theorem for limits.
We will not prove these here. As in the case of limits this theorem tells us how
to compute derivatives of special types of functions. The last two statements
in the theorem may be restated in the following fashion which aids in recalling
them easily:

24
CHAPTER TWO DERIVATIVES

This is referred to a Leibnitz rule for differentiating product of functions or the

product rule. Similarly, the quotient rule is

Now, let us tackle derivatives of some standard functions. It is easy to see that
the derivative of the function f(x) = x is the constant function 1. This is
because

We note that this limit may be evaluated using product rule too. Write f(x) =
10x = uv, where u is the constant function taking value 10 everywhere and v(x)
= x. Here, f(x) = 10x = uv we know that the derivative of u equals 0. Also
derivative of v(x) = x equals 1. Thus by the product rule we have

25
CHAPTER TWO DERIVATIVES

On similar lines the derivative of f(x) = x2 may be evaluated. We have f(x) =

x2 = x .x and hence

More generally, we have the following theorem.

 Theorem (2) Derivative of f(x) = xn is nx n – 1 for any positive integer n.

Proof / By definition of the derivative function, we have

Alternatively, we may also prove this by induction on n and the product rule
as follows. The result is true for n = 1, which has been proved earlier. We
have

26
CHAPTER TWO DERIVATIVES

3. Derivative of polynomials and trigonometric functions

We start with the following theorem which tells us the derivative of a
polynomial function.

 Theorem (1)

be a polynomial function, where

ai s are all real numbers and an = 0. Then, the derivative function is given by

27
CHAPTER THREE CONCLUSIONS

CHAPTER THREE

3.1 CONCLUSIONS

 ́ is the expected value of f at x = a given the values of f near x

to the left of a. This value is called the left hand limit of f at a.
 is the expected value of f at x = a given the values of f
near x to the right of a. This value is called the right hand limit of f(x) at a.
 If the right and left hand limits coincide, we call that common value as the
limit of f(x) at x = a and denote it by .
 The expected value of the function as dictated by the points to the left of a
point defines the left hand limit of the function at that point. Similarly the
right hand limit.
 Limit of a function at a point is the common value of the left and right
hand limits, if they coincide.
 For a function f and a real number a, and f (a) may not be
same (In fact, one may be defined and not the other one).
 For functions f and g the following holds:

 Following are some of the standard limits

28
CHAPTER THREE CONCLUSIONS

 The derivative of a function f at a is defined by

 Derivative of a function f at any point x is defined by

 For functions u and v the following holds

 Following are some of the standard derivatives

29
References

REFERENCES

1. Felscher, Walter (2000), "Bolzano, Cauchy, Epsilon, Delta", American

Mathematical Monthly, 107 (9): 844–
862, doi:10.2307/2695743, JSTOR 2695743
2. Grabiner, Judith V. (1983), "Who Gave You the Epsilon? Cauchy and
the Origins of Rigorous Calculus", American Mathematical
Monthly, 90 (3): 185–194, doi:10.2307/2975545, JSTOR 2975545,
collected in Who Gave You the Epsilon?, ISBN 978-0-88385-569-0 pp.
5–13. Also available
at: http://www.maa.org/pubs/Calc_articles/ma002.pdf
3. Burton, David M. (1997), The History of Mathematics: An
introduction (Third ed.), New York: McGraw–Hill, pp. 558–
559, ISBN 978-0-07-009465-9
4. Miller, Jeff (1 December 2004), Earliest Uses of Symbols of Calculus,
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5. "List of Calculus and Analysis Symbols". Math Vault. 11 May 2020.
Retrieved 18 August2020.
6. Weisstein, Eric W. "Epsilon-Delta
Definition". mathworld.wolfram.com. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
7. Weisstein, Eric W. "Limit". mathworld.wolfram.com. Retrieved 18
August 2020.
8. Limit at Encyclopedia of Mathematics
9. Keisler, H. Jerome (2008), "Quantifiers in limits" (PDF), Andrzej
Mostowski and foundational studies, IOS, Amsterdam, pp. 151–170
10. Hrbacek, K. (2007), "Stratified Analysis?", in Van Den Berg, I.;
Neves, V. (eds.), The Strength of Nonstandard Analysis, Springer

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11. Bŀaszczyk, Piotr; Katz, Mikhail; Sherry, David (2012), "Ten

misconceptions from the history of analysis and their

31