Limit Notation in Calculus

This is going to be a very short post about a crucial subject in calculus: limts!  In my previous post, I gave a short and quite basic explanation of what is meant when we talk about limits in calculus.  I explained that they are similar to a concept that you know in everyday life, such as a speed limit, though they have their differences.  I also simply demonstrated that the value at a point on a curve does not necessarily equal the limit as you approach the point.  They require a different way to think about curves and graphs, in that where you are traditionally used to thinking about what happens exactly at a specific point on a graph (such as, what is the value of y when x equals 2), limits require you to consider what is happening to the curve as you approach a point and get infinitely closer to it.  Essentially, it may be thought of as "based on the shape of the curve that I know for sure, what does it look like the curve is going to do next?"  What it looks like it's going to do, the limit, might not always be exactly what it does do, which would be what the equation of the line would describe exactly.

So, that is a very brief overview of what my last post discussed, and over the next several posts, I will be expanding on this concept of limits, and explaining several different points about them and how to work with them.  First, however, I need to explain the notation for limits.  Limit notation in calculus is quite intuitive when you look at it.  That is, it is quite easy to understand when you see it.  Here is how you would write the symbol for a limit:

To read this, one would read it as "the limit of f of x, as x approaches a, equals L."

The "lim" part indicates that this is a limit, the "f(x)" (in this case) could be any function or expression, and the x→a part indicates the value "a" that x is approaching for which we want to evaluate the limit, L.  Let's consider the following graph again, the same one I drew in my introduction to limits post.

Now, say that we want to determine what the limit of this curve is (let's just call it the generic f(x)) as x→p (*note* assume for now that the point P is designated by the ordered pair (p,y)... tonight I'm too lazy to go back and edit my picture!).  We would write this expression as:

This expression reads as "the limit of f of x, as x approaches p."  Now, in this case, just by looking at the graph, we can visually see that if we trace the curve and move towards point P, where x=p, we can see that the curve is approaching y=4.  In other words, the limit is 4.

Similarly, refer back to my calculus limits introduction post, and you can see on the second example, where y=10 when x=p, the limit as x approaches p is also 4.

I hope that this series of posts is beginning to help you to grasp the concept of limits in calculus.  In my next post, I would like to develop this one a bit further, by introducing the concept of directional limits.  For the examples I've shown so far, we have only considered functions where the curve approaches the same point from both sides.  However, some graphs (e.g. piecewise equations) can have a different limit value, depending on which direction you approach "a" from.  I will explain these one-sided limits and their limit notation in the next post.

What are Limits in Calculus?

Back when I was taking my introductory calculus courses, one of the first topics that we covered was a section on limits and rates of change.  To a math student, "rate of change" kind of makes some sense.  It sounds like a math concept that explains how fast something is changing.  It's a fairly intuitive concept, and we will eventually see that it is a very important concept as well!  On the other hand, at first glance, the concept of a "limit" sounds a bit more abstract.  We all know about limits in terms of, for example, the speed limit for a car or other defined measures.  But how does this construct fit into calculus, or does "limit" mean something else entirely in this context?

The concept of a limit is essentially the same as when we're talking about a speed limit.  Let's say there is a posted speed limit of 50 mph.  Your car is not allowed to travel any faster than this.  So, imagine then what a graph would look like of the speed of your car over time.  At time = 0, you start stationary.  Then you accelerate and start driving a bit faster, until you get to the speed limit, at which point you don't go any faster (because we obey the laws!), and then you approach a stop sign and slow down to come to a stop.  When you look at the graph of what has just happened, you can see that the speed limit is basically a speed value that your car approaches.

In calculus, the concept of a limit is very similar, yet there is a slight difference that is very important.  In quite basic terms, a limit of a graph (or more accurately, a function) is a value that the graph approaches.  This concept is quite different from asking "what is the value at a point on the graph" because you may have a situation where the graph is non-continuous.  Here are a couple of examples that may clear up this concept of calculus limits.

For the first example, consider the following curve.  It is a smooth, continuous curve, meaning that there are no gaps or sudden jumps in the line.  (I will do a separate post on continuity of graphs in more detail soon.)  The limit of the graph as you move along the line towards the point P (getting infinitely closer but never actually reaching), from either direction, approaches the line of y = 4.  In this case, the graph actually does have a point at y = 4, because it is continuous.  So we can technically say that the limit as f(x) approaches point P is 4, and also that f(x) = 4.

Now, let's consider a discontinuous graph to see the importance of limits.  Recall what a function actually is, and specifically in this case think about piecewise functions, and also perhaps a refresher of the vertical line test would do well here as well.  In the below discontinuous graph, we can see that it is indeed a function because it passes the vertical line test.  It also appears to be a piecewise function, in that there appears to be a different expression that defines different parts of the graph (e.g. the curve, and also the point at P).  Note that on the curve, the point P is shown with an open circle to indicate all values that approach P, but not P.  P is elsewhere on the graph.  Similarly to the continuous expression above, as the curve of the graph approaches point P and gets infinitely closer without ever reaching it, it appears to be heading towards (i.e. the limit of the graph is) 4.  However, the expression f(x) itself clearly is not the same value exactly at P, and in this case we can see that when x = p, y actually equals 10 (while the limit is 4).

I know this has been a very basic explanation of limits, but I only intend for it to serve as an introduction to this calculus concept.  I will be posting additional material on other limit-related topics, including the correct limit notation, the concepts of one-sided limits, continuity of graphs, and asymptotes, and I will present some more introductory posts that discuss tangents, velocity, and rates of change.  And of course, what is a mathematical concept without having a set of laws to go with it?  So I will present to you, for your viewing pleasure, the Limit Laws.  I hope this introduction to limits has been enough to provide you with a basic understanding of what a limit of a function is, and how it differs from a regular expression that you are used to by now.  You can't think of these the same way as you have been regarding expressions up to now.  Before, you wanted to know what was happening AT a point.  With limits, you want to know what is happening AS YOU APPROACH a point.  They sound very similar, but they are distinctly different.  A good understanding of limits is essential for you to be able to work with other calculus problems and concepts.  I hope my coming posts will be helpful for you.  As always, please remember to +1 this if it helped you.

Free Printable Math Worksheets

Free Printable Math Worksheets

Free printable math worksheets are a terrific way for students to practice math skills.  By utilizing math worksheets, this can free the teacher from needing to take extra time to create practice math questions and problem sets.  Also, with the right math worksheets, students can learn cool math games and learn that math is fun.

This website can be used as a math resource for students and math teachers alike.  Anyone looking to practice their math skills or learn new math concepts should use these free printable math worksheets to practice and get good at solving mathematics problems.  Teachers looking for math worksheets and problem sets for their math students will also find this site to be very valuable to help them teach the mathematics concepts in their math classes.  These can be used as math print out worksheets, if you wish, or can just be copied down and worked out with a pencil and paper, just like students would do in school on a math test or math quiz.  If there is any topic in particular that anyone, teachers or students, would like me to be included, then please leave me a comment below and I will see what I can do.

I have found a great resource at Homeschoolmath.net that has all sorts of automatically generated math worksheets available for several elementary math grades.  Here's a link to their website that is loaded with free printable math worksheets.  There are worksheets specifically appropriate for grade 1 up to grade 6, and then several more worksheets that focus on specific math concepts.  I highly recommend visiting this site!

The following print out worksheets and problem sets are math questions that I have written on my own.  Feel free to download the files and print them out.  I will post answers as well, and I apologize in advance if there are any errors.  Again, please leave me a comment if you find an error and I will make the correction on the worksheet.

I hope that you find these math worksheets useful, and that they help you to more fully understand the topics and math concepts that I have discussed in other blog posts.  Feel free to leave feedback below, especially what you would like to see or what you would like changed.

Here are a few worksheets to get you started.  I will eventually be adding more to this list.  As teachers can agree with, creating math worksheets can take a lot of time... time which frequently could be better used to plan other aspects of their course curriculum.

Addition Worksheet 1 (with answer key)
Addition Worksheet 2 (with answer key)
Addition Worksheet 3 (with answer key)
Subtraction Worksheet 1 (with answer key)
Subtraction Worksheet 2 (with answer key)
Subtraction Worksheet 3 (with answer key)

Trig Identities Cheat Sheet

Trig Identities Cheat Sheet

This is your trig identities cheat sheet!  Trig identities are defined as mathematical expressions that relate various trigonometric functions to others, regardless of what the variables are.  The trig identities are true for all values of the variable.  They are incredibly valuable to understand and to memorize, and their usefulness becomes apparent when you are faced with a complicated trigonometric expression that needs to be simplified.

All you need to do is rearrange the complicated trig expression such that you can express it in terms of the trigonometric identities, substitute in the identity to simplify, and carry on with solving the math problem.  Think of them as a type of "constant" that can be swapped into expressions (that use sine, cosine, tangent, or any of the related trig functions secant, cosecant, or cotangent) to change their appearance without changing the math surrounding the expression.

Trig identities are extraordinarily important in helping you solve your mathematics questions, and so the identities that I list and explain on this trig identities cheat sheet should really be committed to memory.  If you know them and can recognize them automatically, your math homework and trigonometry questions will become a lot easier.

Reciprocal Identities

For the first set of trig identities, I will list the Reciprocal Identities.  These may be familiar to you already, especially if you have been introduced to the trig functions secant, cosecant, and cotangent.  I'll refer you to my post on sine, cosine, and tangent for their basic definitions, as I will build upon those.  If you look at the definition of sine, you see that it is the ratio of opposite over hypotenuse.  (Remember SOHCAHTOA!)  If you invert this ratio to be hypotenuse over opposite, this is the definition of cosecant.  The same thing applies to secant and cotangent: they are the reciprocal ratio of the sides that define the basic trig identity.  So, then you can also say that these trig functions are the reciprocal of the basic trigonometric functions.  Here they are listed for you:

Naturally, you can rearrange these trig identities to isolate the other trigonometry functions as well:

And those are the first set of trig identities I am going to mention here on my trig identities cheat sheet: the Reciprocal Identities.

Pythagorean Identities

The next set that I would like to mention are the Pythagorean Identities.  Allow me to direct you to a recent post I put up on my In Mathematics blog that had a lengthy explanation about Pythagorean Identities.  I recommend giving that a read to better understand where these trig identities are coming from and how they can be derived.  However, for completeness, I will list them here as well, like above.

Quotient Identities

The Quotient Identities are another set of trig identities that are fairly easy to remember, especially when you understand how to derive them.  Start with the basic trig definitions for sine and cosine.  Sine is opposite over hypotenuse, cosine is adjacent over hypotenuse.  Now, divide sine by cosine:

sine / cosine = [opposite / hypotenuse] / [adjacent / hypotenuse] = opposite / hypotenuse

The hypotenuse in the numerator and denominator expressions cancel out, and you are left simply with the basic trigonometric definition of tangent!  Similarly,divide cosine by sine to get the second quotient identity.

The identities that I have explained above are sometimes considered to be the 8 fundamental trigonometric identities, including the Reciprocal (x3), Pythagorean (x3), and Quotient (x2) identities. Hopefully my explanations have helped you to understand the logic behind these identities, which will ideally make them easier for you to memorize and work with!

Please remember to +1 me if this was useful!

Mental Math Secrets

Have you ever wanted to learn Mental Math Secrets?  Wouldn't it be amazing if you could do all of your math questions in your homework or on tests without ever having to use your calculator, or even having to write it down, because you could quickly and accurately find the answers in your head?  If you improve mental math techniques, this could very easily happen for you!