Left-hand limit at t = 60
A parking garage charges a toll fee based on how long a car stays. The fee is modeled by the piecewise function where is the number of minutes parked and is the fee in dollars.
Evaluate .
Hint
For approaching 60 from the left, is slightly less than 60. Which piece of the definition applies to those values of ?
Step-by-step solution
As , we are considering values of that are slightly less than 60, such as 59, 59.9, 59.99, and so on. For all such values, , so the applicable rule is .
Since for every value of in this range, the fee does not change as gets closer and closer to 60 from below. Therefore .
Right-hand limit at t = 60
Evaluate .
Hint
For approaching 60 from the right, is slightly greater than or equal to 60. Which piece of the definition applies to those values of ?
Step-by-step solution
As , we consider values of slightly greater than 60, such as 60.01, 60.001, and so on. For all such values, , so the applicable rule is .
Since throughout this range, the fee stays at 8 as approaches 60 from above. Therefore .
Existence of the two-sided limit
Based on your results from the left-hand and right-hand limits, does exist? Justify your answer and state the value if it exists.
Hint
Recall that a two-sided limit exists exactly when both one-sided limits exist and are equal to each other.
Step-by-step solution
From the previous parts, and . These are the left-hand and right-hand limits of at .
Since a two-sided limit exists only when both one-sided limits are equal, and here , the limit does not exist.
Comparing the one-sided limit values
Hint
Step-by-step solution
The left-hand limit at t equals sixty was found to be five dollars, while the right-hand limit was found to be eight dollars.
Since eight is greater than five, the right-hand limit is greater than the left-hand limit.
This makes sense because the toll jumps up once the parked time reaches sixty minutes.
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