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  • - [Voiceover] Let's see if we can find the limit

  • as x approaches negative infinity

  • of the square root of 4x to the fourth minus x

  • over 2x squared plus three.

  • And like always, pause this video

  • and see if you can figure it out.

  • Well, whenever we're trying to find limits

  • at either positive or negative infinity

  • of rational expressions like this,

  • it's useful to look at what is the highest degree term

  • in the numerator or in the denominator,

  • or, actually in the numerator and the denominator,

  • and then divide the numerator and the denominator

  • by that highest degree, by x to that degree.

  • Because if we do that, then we're going to end up

  • with some constants and some other things

  • that will go to zero as we approach positive

  • or negative infinity, and we should be able

  • to find this limit.

  • So what I'm talking about, let's divide the numerator

  • by one over x squared and let's divide the denominator

  • by one over x squared.

  • Now, you might be saying, "Wait, wait,

  • "I see an x to the fourth here.

  • "That's a higher degree."

  • But remember, it's under the radical here.

  • So if you wanna look at it at a very high level,

  • you're saying, okay, well x to the fourth, but it's under,

  • you're gonna take the square root of this entire expression,

  • so you can really view this as a second degree term.

  • So the highest degree is really second degree,

  • so let's divide the numerator

  • and the denominator by x squared.

  • And if we do that, dividing,

  • so this is going to be the same thing as,

  • so this is going to be the limit,

  • the limit as x approaches negative infinity of,

  • so let me just do a little bit of a side here.

  • So if I have,

  • if I have one over x squared,

  • all right, let me write it.

  • Let me just, one over x squared times the square root

  • of 4x to the fourth minus x,

  • like we have in the numerator here.

  • This is equal to, this is the same thing

  • as one over the square root of x to the fourth

  • times the square root of 4x to the fourth minus x.

  • And so this is equal to the square root

  • of 4x to the fourth minus x

  • over x to the fourth, which is equal to the square root of,

  • and all I did is I brought the radical in here.

  • You could view this as the square root of all this

  • divided by the square root of this,

  • which is equal to, just using our exponent rules,

  • the square root of 4x to the fourth minus x

  • over x to the fourth.

  • And then this is the same thing as four minus,

  • x over x to the fourth is one over x to the third.

  • So this numerator is going to be,

  • the numerator's going to be the square root

  • of four minus one, x to the third power.

  • And then the denominator

  • is going to be equal to,

  • well, you divide 2x squared by x squared.

  • You're just going to be left with two.

  • And then three divided by x squared is gonna be

  • three over x squared.

  • Now, let's think about the limit

  • as we approach negative infinity.

  • As we approach negative infinity,

  • this is going to approach zero.

  • One divided by things that are becoming

  • more and more and more and more and more negative,

  • their magnitude is getting larger,

  • so this is going to approach zero.

  • This over here is also going to be,

  • this thing is also going to be approaching zero.

  • We're dividing by larger and larger and larger values.

  • And so what this is going to result in

  • is the square root of four, the principal root of four,

  • over two, which is the same thing

  • as two over two,

  • which is equal to one.

  • And we are done.

- [Voiceover] Let's see if we can find the limit

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