Limit of a difference of reciprocals via L'Hopital's Rule
Evaluate the limit
Hint
Combine the two fractions into a single fraction first. Check that direct substitution now gives an indeterminate form of type , then apply L'Hopital's Rule — you will likely need to apply it more than once, so re-check the indeterminate form each time before differentiating.
Step-by-step solution
First combine the two terms into a single fraction: Substituting into numerator and denominator gives and , so this is the indeterminate form , and L'Hopital's Rule applies.
Differentiate numerator and denominator separately: the derivative of is , and the derivative of is (product rule). Substituting gives and , so it is again , and L'Hopital's Rule must be applied a second time.
Differentiate again: the derivative of is , and the derivative of is . Now substituting gives , which is no longer indeterminate.
Therefore
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