Math with Bad DrawingsCartoon Archive

L'Hospital

October 18, 2018

An injured limit lies on the ground after a student applied L'Hôpital's rule to a limit that wasn't indeterminate, getting the wrong answer.

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Free for classrooms, worksheets, slides and other non-commercial use under CC BY-NC 4.0, with credit to Ben Orlin.

Cartoon by Ben Orlin, Math with Bad Drawings. https://cartoons.mathwithbaddrawings.com/2018-10-18-l-hospital/ (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Transcript

A: "What did you do to this poor limit?"

B: "I differentiated the numerator and denominator."

A: "But... WHY??? It was perfectly healthy!"

B: "I was just trying to help..."

[Limit on a stretcher: lim(x→5) e^x/x =(L'H)= lim e^x/1 = e^5]

[Caption] "Overuse L'Hospital, and you'll put 'em in the hospital."

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Calculus › LimitsCalculus › L'Hôpital's RuleCalculus › DerivativesFunctions › Exponentials & eMathematicians & Scientists › Guillaume de l'Hôpital
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Guillaume de l'Hôpital