Rewriting an infinity-minus-infinity limit and applying L'Hopital's Rule
Evaluate the limit Note that this limit initially has the indeterminate form . Combine the two fractions into a single fraction first, then determine whether L'Hopital's Rule can be applied, and use it (possibly more than once) to find the value of the limit.
Hint
Combine the two terms over a common denominator to get . Check that this new expression is as , then differentiate the numerator and denominator separately — you may need to apply L'Hopital's Rule twice before the indeterminate form disappears.
Step-by-step solution
First combine the fractions over a common denominator: As , both the numerator and the denominator , so this is now the indeterminate form , and L'Hopital's Rule applies.
Differentiating numerator and denominator separately gives Substituting again gives , so we apply L'Hopital's Rule a second time: differentiating again gives Now substituting gives , which is no longer indeterminate, so the limit equals .
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