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Section 2.2 : The Limit

2. For the function \(\displaystyle R\left( t \right) = \frac{{2 - \sqrt {{t^2} + 3} }}{{t + 1}}\) answer each of the following questions.

  1. Evaluate the function at the following values of \(t\) compute (accurate to at least 8 decimal places).
    1. -0.5
    2. -0.9
    3. -0.99
    4. -0.999
    5. -0.9999
    1. -1.5
    2. -1.1
    3. -1.01
    4. -1.001
    5. -1.0001
  2. Use the information from (a) to estimate the value of \(\displaystyle \mathop {\lim }\limits_{t \to \, - 1} \frac{{2 - \sqrt {{t^2} + 3} }}{{t + 1}}\).

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a Evaluate the function at the following values of \(t\) compute (accurate to at least 8 decimal places). Show Solution
  1. -0.5
  2. -0.9
  3. -0.99
  4. -0.999
  5. -0.9999
  1. -1.5
  2. -1.1
  3. -1.01
  4. -1.001
  5. -1.0001

Here is a table of values of the function at the given points accurate to 8 decimal places.

\(t\) \(R(t)\) \(t\) \(R(t)\)
-0.5 0.39444872 -1.5 0.58257569
-0.9 0.48077870 -1.1 0.51828453
-0.99 0.49812031 -1.01 0.50187032
-0.999 0.49981245 -1.001 0.50018745
-0.9999 0.49998125 -1.0001 0.50001875


b Use the information from (a) to estimate the value of \(\displaystyle \mathop {\lim }\limits_{t \to \, - 1} \frac{{2 - \sqrt {{t^2} + 3} }}{{t + 1}}\). Show Solution

From the table of values above it looks like we can estimate that,

\[\mathop {\lim }\limits_{t \to \, - 1} \frac{{2 - \sqrt {{t^2} + 3} }}{{t + 1}} = \frac{1}{2}\]