The function $f(x)$ is defined by $$f(x)=\frac{\sin x}{x}$$ for any $x≠0$. For $x=0$, $f(x)=1$.
My work:
Determine if the function is continuous, differentiable and if the latter, find its derivative at $0$.
$$f(x) =\begin{cases}\dfrac{\sin x}{x}, & x \ne 0 \\
1 & x = 0 \end{cases}$$
I proved the continuous condition using L'Hopital's rule on the following
\begin{equation} f(0) = \lim_{x\to 0} \frac{\sin x}x = 1 \end{equation}
For the defferentiable condition I think I proved it
\begin{align*}
\lim_{x\to0} \frac{f(x) – f(0)}{x-0} &= \lim_{x\to0} \frac{\frac{\sin x}x – 1}{x-0} \\
&= \lim_{x\to0} \frac{\sin x – x}{x^2} \\
&= \lim_{x\to0} \frac{\cos x-1}{2x} \\
&= \lim_{x\to0} \frac{-\sin x}{2} \\
&= 0
\end{align*}
Now the derivative of $f(x)$ is
\begin{equation} \frac{x\cos x – \sin x}{x^2} \end{equation}
But what does it mean "find its derivative at $0$" ?
The only thing that came to my mind is to find its limit as $x\to 0$
\begin{equation} \lim_{x\to0}\frac{x\cos x – \sin x}{x^2} = 0 \end{equation}
Did I understand and do everything correctly?
Best Answer
The function defined by
$$f(x)=\begin{cases}\frac{\sin(x)}{x}&,x\ne 0\\\\1&,x=0\end{cases}$$
is not only differentiable at $x=0$, it is continuously differentiable there.
The derivative at $x=0$ is given by
$$f'(0)\equiv \lim_{h\to 0}\frac{\frac{\sin(h)}{h}-1}{h} \tag 1$$
Recalling from elementary geometry that the sine function satisfies the inequalities
$$\cos(h) \le \frac{\sin(h)}{h}\le 1 \tag 2$$
for $|h|\le \pi/2$, we see that the term under the limit in $(1)$ satisfies the inequalities
$$-2\sin^2(h/2)= \cos(h)-1\le \frac{\sin(h)}{h}-1\le 0 \tag 3$$
Then, taking absolute values, dividing by $|h|$, and using the right-hand side inequality in $(2)$ yields
$$0 \le \left|\frac{\frac{\sin(h)}{h}-1}{h}\right|\le \frac12 |h| \tag 4$$
whereupon applying the squeeze theorem to $(4)$ produces the limit
$$\lim_{h\to 0}\frac{\frac{\sin(h)}{h}-1}{h}=0$$
Therefore, $f'(0)=0$.
For $x\ne 0$, we have
$$f'(x)=\frac{x\cos(x)-\sin(x)}{x^2}$$
To see that $f'(x)$ is continuous at $x=0$, we need to show that
$$\lim_{x\to 0}\frac{x\cos(x)-\sin(x)}{x^2}=0 $$
Again, using $(2)$ we see that
$$0\le \left|\frac{x\cos(x)-\sin(x)}{x^2}\right|\le\left|\frac{1-\cos(x)}{x}\right| \le \frac12 |x| \tag 5$$
whereupon applying the squeeze theorem to $(5)$ produces the limit
$$\lim_{x\to 0}\frac{x\cos(x)-\sin(x)}{x^2}=0 $$
Therefore,
$$\lim_{x\to 0}f'(x)=0=f'(0)$$
which shows that $f'$ is continuously differentiable at $0$.