(A) 
Both the limits above are indeterminate, of the form 
. We are discussing here a geometric interpretation of these limits. Consider a sector 
 of a unit circle as shown in the figure below.
We see that
What happens as 
 decreases or as 
We see that the difference between the three areas considered above tends to decrease;
Consider the limits below and you should understand:It is important to observe how any function approaches a limit. For example, in the case above, as 
 approaches 
 from the left side while 
approaches 
 from the right side. This makes a big difference. Why
(B)
Consider the expression for 
 . As 
 gets larger and larger or as 
 , the base 
 gets closer to 
 while the exponent (
), tends to infinity. Hence, this limit is of the indeterminate form 
. Its very important to get a ‘feel’ that the value 
 will converge to a fixed, definite value, as 
increases. You should get this feel by looking at the table below.
Try to show that the limit of 
 is bounded and lies between and 
 and 
, that is, 
 (you can use the binomial theorem in conjunction with the sandwich theorem to prove this, by first proving it for an integral 
)We see that as 
 becomes larger, the term 
 converges to some value (This can be proved) This limiting value is denoted by 
. 
 is an irrational number and its value is 
.
The limit we have just seen is extremely important and will be widely used subsequently.
Note another important point:
If
Hence, any limit of this form has the value 
.
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