Problem

Use l'Hôpital's rule to find the limit. \[ \lim _{x \rightarrow 0} \frac{2 x^{2}}{\cos x-1} \] What must be done to put the given expression in a form to which l'Hôpital's rule can be directly applied?

Solution

Step 1 :The given expression is \(\frac{2 x^{2}}{\cos x-1}\). However, this is not in the form of 0/0 or ∞/∞ as x approaches 0, which is the requirement for applying l'Hôpital's rule. We need to manipulate the expression to bring it to this form.

Step 2 :We can do this by using the trigonometric identity \(\cos(2x) = 2\cos^2(x) - 1\). This will allow us to rewrite the denominator in a way that it approaches 0 as x approaches 0.

Step 3 :Rewriting the expression, we get \(\frac{2 x^{2}}{\frac{\cos(2x)}{2} - \frac{1}{2}}\).

Step 4 :Simplifying the expression, we get \(\frac{4 x^{2}}{\cos(2x) - 1}\).

Step 5 :The expression is now in the form 0/0 as x approaches 0, so we can apply l'Hôpital's rule. l'Hôpital's rule states that the limit of a quotient of two functions as x approaches a certain value is equal to the limit of the quotients of their derivatives. So, we need to find the derivative of the numerator and the derivative of the denominator.

Step 6 :The derivative of the numerator is 8x and the derivative of the denominator is -2sin(2x).

Step 7 :Applying l'Hôpital's rule, we find that the limit of the given expression as x approaches 0 is -2.

Step 8 :Final Answer: \(\boxed{-2}\)

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Source: https://solvelyapp.com/problems/23945/

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