What are all the removable discontinuities/holes and vertical asymptotres for (2x^2)/(x^2-1)2x2x21?

1 Answer
Oct 26, 2015

Since x^2-1=(x+1)(x-1)x21=(x+1)(x1) we will have discontinuities
at x=+1andx=-1x=+1andx=1 (or the denominator will be =0=0

Explanation:

These discontinuities are non-removable, as it makes a difference whether you approach these values from below of from above (try this and see the graph). This means that x=+1andx=-1x=+1andx=1 are vertical asymptotes.

Also, when xx grows bigger (positive or negative) the function starts to look more like
(2cancel(x^2))/(cancel(x^2))=2 so y=2 is a horizontal asymptote.
Between the values of x=+1andx=-1 the function will be negative with a maximum at (0,0), so in the values of the function there is a gap between 0and+2
graph{2x^2/(x^2-1) [-16.02, 16.01, -8.01, 8.01]}