Why $x + \ln(x)$ seems to have oblique asymptote

analysisasymptotics

The function $f(x) = x + \ln(x)$ has no oblique asymptote, since the definition of an oblique asymptote is

$\lim_{x\to \infty} {f(x) \over x} = m$

$\lim_{x\to \infty} [{f(x) – mx}] = l$

and in our case:

$\lim_{x\to \infty} {x + \ln(x) \over x} = 1$

$\lim_{x\to \infty} [{x + \ln(x) – x}] = \lim_{x\to \infty} \ln(x) = \infty$

But why when I look at the function in desmos, very zoomed out, it looks very much like like a straight line?
screenshot of demos graph

Best Answer

The second item of your definition of an oblique asymptote entails that you should get closer to the oblique line upon just panning to the right, without having to de-zoom.

This is indeed not the case here although it would be very hard to observe since, as others have pointed out in comments, $\ln$ goes to infinity very slowly. A more striking example would be $x+\sqrt{x}$ maybe.

The weaker property that the curve looks more and more like an oblique line upon dezooming corresponds to only the first item in your definition, which, as you have shown, indeed is the case for $x+\ln(x)$.

Related Question