Limits at Infinity

Limits at Infinity

Limits at infinity are used to describe the behavior of functions as the independent variable increases or decreases without bound. If a function approaches a numerical value L in either of these situations, write 

Great video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVJNuukADeQ

More Examples: http://archives.math.utk.edu/visual.calculus/1/horizontal.5/index.html 

when dealing with limits two problems we encounter are tangent lines and area. We can use three rules when dealing with ratinal polynomyals with limits.

1: If the exponent on the numerator is high that the exponent in the denomanator then the limit, when approching infinity is infinity.

lim_x-infinity 4x^5-3x+1/2x^2+5x-3, the limit=infinity

2: When the exponents are the same in both the numerator and the denominator the you take the ratio of the coefficients to find the limit.

lim_x-infinity 4x^2-3x+1/2x^2+5x+3=4/2=2

3: And lastly when the denominator has the higher exponent the limit is zero.

lim_x-infinity 4x^2-3x+1/2x^5+5x+3=0

Sorry if i said something incorrect about limits. i'm still a little new at this.

(For some reason when i made the post i couldn't get the equation editor)