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Exercise 764Calculus › Single-variable calculus › Differentiation › Differentiable functionsL1Added 2 Nov 2026

L'Hôpital's rule, twice

#L'Hôpital's rule#indeterminate forms

Statement

Compute
lim⁡x→0x−xcos⁡xx−sin⁡x.\lim_{x\to0}\frac{x-x\cos x}{x-\sin x}.

Hint

This is a 00\frac00 form: apply L'Hôpital's rule, and apply it again if needed. You can check the answer with Taylor expansions.

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Solution

First application. The numerator and denominator vanish at 00 and are differentiable:
(x−xcos⁡x)′(x−sin⁡x)′=1−cos⁡x+xsin⁡x1−cos⁡x.\frac{(x-x\cos x)'}{(x-\sin x)'}=\frac{1-\cos x+x\sin x}{1-\cos x}.
This is again a 00\frac00 form.

Second application.
(1−cos⁡x+xsin⁡x)′(1−cos⁡x)′=sin⁡x+sin⁡x+xcos⁡xsin⁡x=2+xsin⁡xcos⁡x⟶2+1⋅1=3.\begin{aligned} \frac{(1-\cos x+x\sin x)'}{(1-\cos x)'}&=\frac{\sin x+\sin x+x\cos x}{\sin x}\\&=2+\frac x{\sin x}\cos x\longrightarrow2+1\cdot1\\&=3. \end{aligned}

Conclusion. The limit is 33, since each application preserves the limit once the new limit exists.

Check by Taylor. x−xcos⁡x=x32+o(x3)x-x\cos x=\frac{x^3}2+o(x^3) and x−sin⁡x=x36+o(x3)x-\sin x=\frac{x^3}6+o(x^3), so the quotient tends to 1/21/6=3\frac{1/2}{1/6}=3.