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Exercise 12.1 · Q19

Q.lim⁡x→0xsec⁡x\lim_{x\to 0} x\sec x

Telangana TsbieTextbookSubjective· 2mImportance★★★★★est
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Rewrite sec⁡x\sec x as 1cos⁡x\frac{1}{\cos x} and use the fact that cos⁡0=1\cos 0 = 1 to evaluate directly; the limit is 0.

When you see a product involving a trigonometric function at a point where the function is well-behaved, the first instinct should be to check whether direct substitution works. The secant function sec⁡x=1cos⁡x\sec x = \frac{1}{\cos x} is perfectly defined at x=0x = 0 because cos⁡0=1≠0\cos 0 = 1 \neq 0. This means we're not dealing with an indeterminate form, and the limit can be found by straightforward evaluation.

The key insight: as x→0x \to 0, one factor (xx) shrinks to zero while the other (sec⁡x\sec x) approaches a finite non-zero value. The product of something vanishing and something bounded must itself vanish.

Step-by-step evaluation

  1. Rewrite the expression in terms of cosine.

lim⁡x→0xsec⁡x=lim⁡x→0xcos⁡x\lim_{x\to 0} x\sec x = \lim_{x\to 0} \frac{x}{\cos x}

  1. Check continuity at the point of interest.

    The function xcos⁡x\frac{x}{\cos x} is continuous at x=0x = 0 because:

    • The numerator xx is continuous everywhere
    • The denominator cos⁡x\cos x is continuous everywhere and cos⁡0=1≠0\cos 0 = 1 \neq 0 …

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