3
$\begingroup$

Really stuck on this one....

$\displaystyle f(x) = \frac{x - \sin{x}}{x^{2}}$ for $x \neq 0$ and $0$ when $x = 0$

Using the definition of the derivative, find f'(0)

I know the definition is $ \lim_{h \to 0} \frac{f(x+h)-f(x)}{h}$

The way I did it was to say $\lim_{h\to 0}\frac{\frac{(x+h)-\sin(x+h)}{(x+h)^2} - \frac{x - \sin x}{x^2}}{h}$ $=\lim_{h\to 0}\frac{\frac{1-\cos(x+h)}{(x+h)^2} - 2\left(\frac{(x+h) - \sin(x+h)}{(x+h)^3}\right)}{1}$ (using L'Hôpitals Rule) which is $ \frac{1-\cos(x)}{x^2} -\frac{2(x-\sin x)}{x^3}.$ But then we cant use this to find f'(0) because the denominator it 0!!!

Where am I going wrong?

  • 0
    @amWhy: I didn't take it as harsh (or at least I didn't mean to).2011-05-27

2 Answers 2

4

You misapplied the definition of the derivative. If you want to find f'(0), you cannot apply the formula for $f$ when $x\neq 0$ in $\lim_{h \to 0} \frac{f(x+h)-f(x)}{h}$, then substitute $x=0$; you first have to substitute $x=0$ to get $\lim_{h \to 0} \frac{f(0+h)-f(0)}{h},$ then apply the definition for $f$, noting that $f(0)=0$ by definition.

  • 0
    @user4645: In general, you should be able to do it either way. The problem is that when you tried to find $f'(x)$ in general, you used the formula for $f(x)$ that only applied when $x\neq 0$, so your formula for $f'(x)$ will only be valid when $x\neq 0$. Your method should yield a correct formula for $f'(x)$ for $x\neq 0$. For $f'(2)$, you could either put 2 instead of 0 in the formula that I used or use the formula that you found for $f'(x)$ (the problem is only at $x=0$).2011-05-30
3

So here you have f'(0)= \lim_{h \to 0} \frac{f(0+h)-f(0)}{h} = \lim_{h \to 0} \biggl[\frac{h - \sin{h}}{h^{3}}\biggr]

Keep applying the L hospitals rule or else use expansion for the $\sin$ function which is given by $\sin{h} = h -\frac{h^{3}}{3!} + \frac{h^{5}}{5!} - \cdots $

  • 0
    thanks but we are not alloweed to use taylor's series for this question.... it says to use the definition directly.2011-05-30