Limit (mathematics) - Limit of A Sequence

Limit of A Sequence

Consider the following sequence: 1.79, 1.799, 1.7999,... It can be observed that the numbers are "approaching" 1.8, the limit of the sequence.

Formally, suppose a1, a2, ... is a sequence of real numbers. It can be stated that the real number L is the limit of this sequence, namely:

to mean

For every real number ε > 0, there exists a natural number n0 such that for all n > n0, |an − L| < ε.

Intuitively, this means that eventually all elements of the sequence get arbitrarily close to the limit, since the absolute value |an − L| is the distance between an and L. Not every sequence has a limit; if it does, it is called convergent, and if it does not, it is divergent. One can show that a convergent sequence has only one limit.

The limit of a sequence and the limit of a function are closely related. On one hand, the limit as n goes to infinity of a sequence a(n) is simply the limit at infinity of a function defined on the natural numbers n. On the other hand, a limit L of a function f(x) as x goes to infinity, if it exists, is the same as the limit of any arbitrary sequence an that approaches L, and where an is never equal to L. Note that one such sequence would be L + 1/n.

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