How do you evaluate the limit #(x^2-25)/(x^2-4x-5)# as x approaches 0?

1 Answer
Noah G
Sep 18, 2016

Factor both the numerator and the denominator to see what, if anything you can eliminate.

#=>lim_(x->0)((x + 5)(x- 5))/((x - 5)(x + 1))#

#=>lim_(x->0)(x+ 5)/(x + 1)#

#=>5/1#

#=> 5#

We could have also just substituted the given value into the expression, except it's important to learn how to do the above method when substituting isn't possible.

Hopefully this helps!

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