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In trying to give the OP an elementary answer to this question, I made some rather stupid mistakes. I feel terrible about giving a wrong answer (in lieu of a complicated but correct one).

I devised a new proof, and wanted to check it before editing my answer. Does everyone like the following (well enough)?


Assertion: $$\lim_{x \to 0^+} \frac{x^{x^x}}{x} = 1$$

Proof: We pass to the log of the limit.

$$\log\left(\lim_{x \to 0^+} \frac{x^{x^x}}{x}\right) = \lim_{x \to 0^+} \log\left(\frac{x^{x^x}}{x}\right) = \lim_{x \to 0^+} \frac{\log(x)}{\frac{1}{x^x - 1}}$$

We use L'Hospital's rule, and rearrange:

$$\lim_{x \to 0^+} \frac{\log(x)}{\frac{1}{x^x - 1}} = \lim_{x \to 0^+} \frac{\frac{1}{x}}{\frac{-x^x(\log(x) + 1)}{(x^x - 1)^2}} = \lim_{x \to 0^+} \frac{- (x^x - 1)^2}{x^{x}(x\log(x) + x)} = \left( \lim_{x \to 0^+} \frac{-(x^x - 1)}{x^x} \right) \left( \lim_{x \to 0^+} \frac{(x^x - 1)}{x\log(x) + x} \right) $$

provided that both of these last limits exist; but (again using L'Hospital in the 2nd limit) we see that

$$\lim_{x \to 0^+} \frac{-(x^x - 1)}{x^x} = \frac{0}{1} = 0,$$

$$\lim_{x \to 0^+} \frac{(x^x - 1)}{x\log(x) + x} = \lim_{x \to 0^+} \frac{x^x(\log(x)+1)}{(1+ \log(x)) + (1)} = \left( \lim_{x \to 0^+} \frac{x^x(\log(x)+2)}{( \log(x)) + 2)} - \lim_{x \to 0^+} \frac{x^x}{(\log(x)) + 2)} \right) = 1,$$

and therefore $\displaystyle\log\left(\lim_{x \to 0^+} \frac{x^{x^x}}{x}\right) = 0$.

Evaluating both sides by $\exp(x)$ therefore shows that $\displaystyle\lim_{x \to 0^+} \frac{x^{x^x}}{x} = 1$.

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    Looks okay; I improved the formatting to make it a bit easier to read.2012-06-06
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    The first equality after "but we see that" looks suspicious. You changed $1/\log(x)$ to $\log(x)$, which turns a nontrivial limit of type $0/0$ into a trivial one of type $0/\infty$... (And by the way, adding and subtracting one seems very roundabout; you could just replace $1$ by $\log(x)/\log(x)$.)2012-06-06
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    @HansLundmark Thank you for catching those mistakes; I repaired the proof (yet again, and finally this time).2012-06-06
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    possible duplicate of [Limit of $\frac{x^{x^x}}{x}$ as $x\to 0^+$](http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/154058/limit-of-fracxxxx-as-x-to-0)2013-12-22

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