Calculating $\lim_{x\to 0} \frac{a^{\tan x} – a^{\sin x}}{\tan x – \sin x}$ without using L’Hospital rule

calculuslimitslimits-without-lhopital

$$\lim_{x\to 0} \frac{a^{\tan x} – a^{\sin x}}{\tan x – \sin x}$$

We weren't supposed to do this using L'Hospital's rule

So in the beginning, I added and subtracted 1 from the numerator the get into a standard limit form

$$\frac{a^x-1}{x}.$$

From then on, I got a string of standard limits but it the end, the answer just doesn't seem to match. All the time I get a $0$ and the answer is $\ln(a)$.

Best Answer

We have :\begin{aligned}\lim_{x\to 0}{\frac{a^{\tan{x}}-a^{\sin{x}}}{\tan{x}-\sin{x}}}&=\lim_{x\to 0}{a^{\sin{x}}\frac{a^{\tan{x}-\sin{x}}-1}{\tan{x}-\sin{x}}}\\ &=a^{0}\times \ln{a}\\ &=\ln{a}\end{aligned}

Because $ \lim\limits_{x\to 0}{\frac{a^{\tan{x}-\sin{x}}-1}{\tan{x}-\sin{x}}}=\lim\limits_{y\to 0}{\frac{a^{y}-1}{y}}=\ln{a} $ as you said.

Related Question