Monday, July 21, 2014

Prove that limit of the function (a^x-1)/x=lna,x->0,using two methods.

We have to prove that lim x-->0 [(a^x - 1)/x] = ln
a


First, if we substitute x = 0, we get the indeterminate
form 0/0. This allows the use of l"Hopital's rule and we can substitute the numerator
and the denominator by their derivatives


lim x-->0
[(a^x) * ln a ]


substitute x = 0, we get ln
a


Next we can write : a^x - 1 =
h.

=> a^x = 1 + h


=> x =
log(a) ( 1 + h )


=>x = [ln( 1 + h )]/( ln
a)


As a^x - 1 = h , x--> 0 => h -->
0


So we have lim h-->0 [h /(ln(1 + h)/ln
a)]


=> lim h-->0 [ln a/(ln(1 +
h)/h)]


=> lim h-->0 [ln a/(ln(1 +
h)^(1/h))]


=> ln a * [ 1/ lim h-->0 [(ln(1 +
h)^(1/h))]


=> ln a * ln
e


=> ln a * 1


=>
ln a


This proves lim x-->0 [(a^x -
1)/x] = ln a

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