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One to the Power Infinity

One to the power infinity can be either of the following.

one_to_infinity

 -infinity Negative infinity
+infinity Positive infinity

 

This is known as an indeterminate form, because it is unknown. One to the power infinity is unknown because infinity itself is endless. Take a look at some examples of indeterminate forms.

 

indeterminate_forms

When would we encounter a situation like this? Say you want to find the limit of the following function as it approaches infinity:

lim_indeterminate_form

When we plug infinity into this function, we see that it takes on the indeterminate form of one to the power infinity. To solve this, let’s take a look at an example.

 

Example

Take the following equation.

function_indeterminate

Let’s take the limit of the following function as it approaches zero.

function_lim

To take the limit, we first replace all the x values by our a value of zero.

function_over_zero_lim

The result gives us one to the power of 1 over 0.

lim_approahces_zero

1 over zero is undefined. When we take the limit by approaching zero from the right and left side, we see what happens.

 

x y
0.1 10
0.001 1000
0.00001 100000
-0.0001 -10000
-0.001 -1000
-0.1 -10

 

A +infinity
B -infinity

 

This gives us an indeterminate form, just like in the previous section. In order to solve this, we should review what limits are.

 

Limits Summary

When you take the limit of a function, you want to know what value it approaches when x reaches a specific value. Let’s review the notation.

lim_notation

 

lim Symbol for the limit
x -> a As x approaches a specified value a
f(x) The function we’re finding the limit for

 

When you take a limit of a function, you can approach the value from the right or from the left.

approaching_left_right_limit

 

A B
Definition Approach from the right Approach from the left
Description Getting closer to the value of a on the right side Getting closer to the value of a on the left side

 

Indeterminate Forms

There are three general methods of finding the limit of a function. Take this for example:

limit_method

 

Method 1 Plug the value a in for x Substitute 4 in for x
Method 2 Simplify the function, then plug in a for x Factor out the top function to get , then substitute 4 in
Method 3 L'Hopital's rule When there’s an indeterminate form, take the derivative of the functions

 

An indeterminate form is when a value is unknown or undefined. Take a look at common, indeterminate forms.

 

Fraction ,
Standard , ,
Power , ,

 

L’Hopital Rule

L’Hopital’s rule is used for when we have an indeterminate form, such as 1 to the power infinity, and states the following:

l'hopital_rule_limit

The limit of any rational function is equal to the limit of the derivative of each function divided by each other.

 

Solving One to Power Infinity

Take the following example:

indeterminate_form_result

As we will see, this limit will result in an indeterminate form. Here, we can use l’Hopital’s rule for solving for the limit.

 

Step 1

The first step in finding the limit is to try plugging in the value a into the function.

limit_approach

As you can see, we end up with 1 to the power of 1 over zero. One over zero is actually an indeterminate form in itself. Take a look at the table below to find out why.

function_indeterminate

 

x y
0.5 2
0.1 10
0.001 1000
0.0001 10000
0.00001 100000

 

One over zero is unknown because as the denominator approaches 0, the y value approaches infinity. Because One over zero is infinity, the result of our function when we plug in zero is one to infinity:

indeterminate_result

 

Step 2

Because substituting the limit into the function results in an indeterminate form, we need to use l’Hopital’s rule. The second step in this process is to let the limit equal y.

limit_function

Now, to get a more simplified version of the limit we take the natural log of both sides.

l'hopital_method

Recall logarithmic rules allow us to move the exponent in front of the log.

l'hopital_simplify

 

At this point, we have the perfect function to use l’Hopital’s rule. If we plug in zero at this moment, we still get an indeterminate form: zero over zero. However, l’Hopital’s rule states that we can take the derivative of each function of a rational function.

 

Step 2

Let’s take the derivative of the numerator and denominator independently of one another. We can do each independently because of l’Hopital’s rule.

 

natural_log_l'hopital

We get this result using derivative rules for the natural log. Now, let’s try plugging zero into the function.

l'hopital_method_limit

Now, you can see that we end up with the natural log of y being equal to 3.

 

Step 4

We are interested in finding the limit of the function, which in this case would be the y. Meaning, we need to get y by itself. To do this, we can take e to the ln(y). This will make the e and the ln cancel out.

limit_final_l'hopital

Now, we have the limit to our original function, which is e to the power 3.

 

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Emma

Emma

I am passionate about travelling and currently live and work in Paris. I like to spend my time reading, gardening, running, learning languages and exploring new places.