THEOREM 1.

2 PROPERTIES OF LIMITS Let b and c be real numbers, let n be a positive interger, and f and g be functions with the following limits.
x c

lim f (x) = L and lim g (x) = K

x c

1. Scalar multiple:
x c

lim [bf (x)] = bL

2. Sum or dierence:
x c

lim [f (x) g (x)] = L K

3. Product:
x c

lim [f (x)g (x)] = LK

4. Quotient:
x c

lim

f (x) L = , provided k = 0 g (x) K lim [f (x)]n = Ln

5. Power:
x c

> 0, you know that Proof: To prove property 2, choose > 0. Because 2 there exists 1 > 0 such that 0 < |x c| < 1 implies |f (x) L| < 2 . You also know that there exists 2 > 0 such that 0 < |x c| < 2 implies |g (x) K | < 2 . Let be the smaller of 1 and 2 ; then 0 < |x c| < implies that |f (x) L| < and |g (x) K | < . 2 2 So, you can apply the triangle inequality to conclude that

|[f (x) + g (x)] (L + K )| |f (x) L| + |g (x) K | < which implies that

x c

+ = 2 2

lim [f (x) + g (x)] = L + K = lim f (x) + lim g (x).

x c x c

The proof that

x c

lim [f (x) g (x)] = L K

is similar. To prove property 3, given that

x c

lim f (x) = L and x lim g (x) = K c

you can write f (x)g (x) = [f (x) L][g (x) K ] + [Lg (x) + Kf (x)] LK. Because the limit of f (x) is L, and the limit of g (x) is K , you have
x c

lim [f (x) L] = 0 and lim [g (x) K ] = 0.

x c

Let 0 < < 1. Then there exists > 0 such that if 0 < |x c| < , then |f (x) L 0| < and |g (x) K 0| < which implies that |[f (x) L][g (x) K ] 0| = |f (x) L||g (x) K | < < . So,
x c

lim [f (x) L][g (x) K ] = 0.

Furthermore, by property 1, you have

x c

lim Lg (x) = LK and x lim Kf (x) = KL. c

Finally, by property 2, you obtain

x c

lim f (x)g (x)

=x lim [f (x) L][g (x) K ] + x lim Lg (x) + x lim Kf (x) x lim LK c c c c = 0 + Lk + KL Lk = Lk. 2

To prove property 4, note that it is sucient to prove that lim x c 1 1 = . g (x) k

Then you can use property 3 to write f (x) 1 1 L = lim f (x) = lim f (x) = . xc g (x) x c g (x) xc g (x) K lim Let > 0. Because
x c

lim g (x) = K,

there exists 1 > 0 such that if 0 < |x c| < 1 , then |g (x) K | < which implies that |k | = |g (x) + [|K | g (x)]| |g (x)| + ||K | g (x)| < |g (x)| + That is, for 0 < |x c| < 1 , |K | 1 2 < g (x) or < . 2 |g (x)| |K | Similarly, there exists a 2 > 0 such that if 0 < |x c| < 2 , then |g (x) K | < |K |2 . 2 |K | . 2 |K | 2

Let be the smaller of 1 and 2 . For 0 < |x c| < , you have | 1 1 K g (x) 1 1 1 2 |K |2 |=| |= |K g (x)| < = . g (x) K g (x)K |K | |g (x)| |K | |K | 2 1 1 = . g (x) k

So,
x c

lim

Finally, the proof of property 5 can be obtained by straightforward application of mathematical induction coupled with property 3. 3