University Calculus: Early Transcendentals (3rd Edition)

Published by Pearson
ISBN 10: 0321999584
ISBN 13: 978-0-32199-958-0

Chapter 13 - Section 13.2 - Limits and Continuity in Higher Dimensions - Exercises - Page 691: 43

Answer

The limit does not exist

Work Step by Step

Consider $f(x,y)=\dfrac{x^4-y^2}{x^4+y^2}$ Let us consider the approach: $(x,y) \to (0,0)$ along $y=kx^2$ Then, we get $\lim\limits_{x \to 0}\dfrac{x^4-(kx)^2}{x^4+(kx)^2}=\lim\limits_{x \to 0}\dfrac{1-k^2}{1+k^2}=\dfrac{1-k^2}{1+k^2}$ This shows that there are multiple limit values and thus the limit does not exist at the point $(0,0)$ for the given function.
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