Evaluating a 0/0 limit using L'Hopital's Rule
Evaluate the limit using L'Hopital's Rule. Be sure to verify that the indeterminate form applies before each differentiation.
Hint
Check that substituting gives . Then differentiate the numerator and denominator separately (not using the quotient rule), and check again whether the new limit is still indeterminate before differentiating again.
Step-by-step solution
Substituting gives , so the form is indeterminate and L'Hopital's Rule applies. Differentiating numerator and denominator separately gives . Substituting again gives , still indeterminate, so we apply L'Hopital's Rule again.
Differentiating again gives . Substituting gives once more, so we apply L'Hopital's Rule a third time, differentiating to get . Now substituting gives , which is not indeterminate, so the limit equals .
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