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[parent] proof of De l'Hôpital's rule (Proof)

Let $x_0\in \R$ $I$ be an interval containing $x_0$ and let $f$ and $g$ be two differentiable functions defined on $I\setminus\{x_0\}$ with $g'(x)\neq 0$ for all $x\in I$ Suppose that $$ \lim_{x\to x_0} f(x) = 0, \quad \lim_{x\to x_0} g(x)=0 $$ and that $$ \lim_{x\to x_0} \frac{f'(x)}{g'(x)}=m. $$

We want to prove that hence $g(x)\neq 0$ for all $x\in I\setminus\{x_0\}$ and $$ \lim_{x\to x_0} \frac{f(x)}{g(x)}=m. $$

First of all (with little abuse of notation) we suppose that $f$ and $g$ are defined also in the point $x_0$ by $f(x_0)=0$ and $g(x_0)=0$ The resulting functions are continuous in $x_0$ and hence in the whole interval $I$

Let us first prove that $g(x)\neq 0$ for all $x\in I\setminus\{x_0\}$ If by contradiction $g(\bar x)=0$ since we also have $g(x_0)=0$ by Rolle's Theorem we get that $g'(\xi)=0$ for some $\xi\in (x_0,\bar x)$ which is against our hypotheses.

Consider now any sequence $x_n\to x_0$ with $x_n\in I\setminus\{x_0\}$ By Cauchy's mean value Theorem there exists a sequence $x'_n$ such that $$ \frac{f(x_n)}{g(x_n)} = \frac{f(x_n)-f(x_0)}{g(x_n)-g(x_0)} = \frac{f'(x'_n)}{g'(x'_n)}. $$ But as $x_n\to x_0$ and since $x'_n \in (x_0,x_n)$ we get that $x'_n\to x_0$ and hence $$ \lim_{n\to\infty} \frac{f(x_n)}{g(x_n)} = \lim_{n\to\infty} \frac{f'(x_n)}{g'(x_n)} = \lim_{x\to x_0} \frac{f'(x)}{g'(x)} = m. $$

Since this is true for any given sequence $x_n\to x_0$ we conclude that $$ \lim_{x\to x_0} \frac{f(x)}{g(x)} = m. $$




"proof of De l'Hôpital's rule" is owned by paolini.
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Keywords:  Hospital, Hopital

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Cross-references: Cauchy's mean value theorem, sequence, Rolle's theorem, contradiction, continuous, functions, point, differentiable functions, interval
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This is version 7 of proof of De l'Hôpital's rule, born on 2003-01-27, modified 2004-04-16.
Object id is 3930, canonical name is ProofOfDeLHopitalsRule.
Accessed 9333 times total.

Classification:
AMS MSC26A24 (Real functions :: Functions of one variable :: Differentiation : general theory, generalized derivatives, mean-value theorems)
 26C15 (Real functions :: Polynomials, rational functions :: Rational functions)

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L'Hopital and Bernoulli by zorba on 2005-12-02 12:43:19
One of my friends, Chuck, e-mailed me this:

"It was recently discovered that the rule and its proof were written in a letter from John Bernoulli to L'Hopital."

This statement is from the following reference:
Ron Larson, Robert P. Hostetler, Bruce H. Edwards, "Calculus / Early Transcendental Functions", second edition, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, New York, 1999, ISBN 0-395-93320-X, section 7.7 (Indeterminate Forms and L'Hopital's Rule), page 524.

John Bernoulli discovered the rule before Guillaume L'Hopital.

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