Calculus – Finding $\lim\limits_{h \to 0}\frac{(\sqrt{9+h} -3)}{h}$

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I have about 10 of these problems I could post, can't figure any of them out…not sure what to do.

$$\lim_{h \to 0}\dfrac{(\sqrt{9+h} -3)}{h}$$

I know that I need to rationalize it so I multiply by the numerator which gives me

$9 + h – 9$ (not sure if positive or negative since it is $-3$ squared it should be $9$ but it could also be minus square of $3$ which would be -9
/h sqr(9+h) -3

From that I can divide by h and get 1/3-3

which I know is wrong. What am I doing wrong?

Best Answer

If $\rm\ f(x)\: = \ f_0 + f_1\ x +\:\cdots\:+f_n\ x^n\:$ and $\rm\: f_0 \ne 0\:$ then rationalizing the numerator below yields

$$\rm \lim_{x\:\to\: 0}\ \dfrac{\sqrt{f(x)}-\sqrt{f_0}}{x}\ = \ \lim_{x\:\to\: 0}\ \dfrac{f(x)-f_0}{x\ (\sqrt{f(x)}+\sqrt{f_0})}\ =\ \dfrac{f_1}{2\ \sqrt{f_0}}$$

Your problem is the special case $\rm\ f(x) = 9 + x\ $ with $\rm\ f_0 =9,\ f_1 = 1\:,\:$ so the limit equals $\:1/6\:.\:$

When you study derivatives you'll see how they mechanize this process in a very general way. Namely the above limit is $\rm\:g'(0)\ $ for $\rm\:g(x) = \sqrt{f(x)}\:,\:$ so applying general rules for calculating derivatives we easily mechanically calculate that $\rm\:g'(x)\: =\: f\:\:'(x)/(2\:\sqrt{f(x)})\:.\:$ Evaluating it at $\rm\:x=0\:$ we conclude that $\rm\: g'(0)\: =\: f\:\:'(0)/(2\:\sqrt{f(0)})\: =\: f_1/(2\:\sqrt{f_0})\:,\:$ exactly as above.