Calculus: Early Transcendentals 8th Edition

Published by Cengage Learning
ISBN 10: 1285741552
ISBN 13: 978-1-28574-155-0

Chapter 2 - Section 2.6 - Limits at Infinity; Horizontal Asymptotes - 2.6 Exercises - Page 139: 51

Answer

There are no horizontal asymptotes. $x=5~$ is a vertical asymptote.

Work Step by Step

Horizontal asymptotes: $\lim\limits_{x \to -\infty}\frac{x^3-x}{x^2-6x+5} = -\infty$ $\lim\limits_{x \to \infty}\frac{x^3-x}{x^2-6x+5} = \infty$ There are no horizontal asymptotes. Vertical asymptotes: $\frac{x^3-x}{x^2-6x+5} = \frac{(x)(x-1)(x+1)}{(x-5)(x-1)}$ $x=5~~$ is a vertical asymptote. Although $(x-1)$ is in the denominator, we can see that $(x-1)$ is also in the numerator. Therefore, $~~x=1~~$ is not a vertical asymptote, even though the graph is undefined at this point.
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