Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

denis
Lv 4
denis asked in Science & MathematicsMathematics · 5 years ago

Prove limit using epsilon delta?

lim (x,y,z)->(0,0,0) 2xz/(x²+y²+z²) = 0

I don't even know how to start

1 Answer

Relevance
  • ?
    Lv 7
    5 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    it's not.

    suppose we approach 0 along the line (t,0,t)

    then the limit becomes

    lim t-->0 (2 t^2) / (2 t^2) = 1

    but if we approach along a different line such at (t,0,0)

    the limit is;

    lim t-->0 (0) / (t^2) = 0

    If the limit exists then the limit must be the same on every path to the limit point.

    That would be an adequate dis-proof, but you have been asked to use an epsilon delta proof. How do we do that?

    In single variable analysis we said

    lim x-->a f(x) = L means:

    For any epsilon > 0 there exists a delta > 0 such that |x-a| < delta ==> |f(x) - L| < epsilon.

    To generalize to multiple variables we replace |x-a| with d(x,a) where d is our chosen distance metric. Lets use the Euclidean metric.

    If the limit exists and equals 0 then

    For any epsilon < 0 there exists a delta > 0 such that d(X,0) < delta ==> |f(X) | < epsilon.

    let epsilon = 0.1

    for any delta>0 there exists X with d(X,0) < delta such that |f(x)| = 1

    QED

Still have questions? Get your answers by asking now.