What is lim_(x->0) xlnx - x^2?

1 Answer
Apr 10, 2015

y = xlnx - x^2

If you merely plug in zero, what you get is undefined.

lim_(x->0) f(x) = undefined by simply using x = 0.

You can try this:

y = lnx/(1/x) - x^2
= lnx/(1/x) - x/(1/x)
= (lnx - x)/(1/x)

Use L'Hopital's Rule to differentiate this (separately for numerator and denominator), because now it has a nice form for it.

y = (1/x - 1)/(-1/x^2)
= (-x^2)(1/x - 1)
= -x + x^2

Now, set them equal to 0.

x^2 - x = 0

So, this limit is equal to zero.

graph{xlnx - x^2 [-1.552, 1.866, -1.019, 0.69]}