COUNTEREXAMPLE TO L’HOSPITAL’S RULE

DANIEL V. TAUSK

We will construct two positive functions F : I → R and G : I → R of

class C 1 , with I ⊂ R an interval that is unbounded above, in such a way
that
F (x)
lim F (x) = lim G(x) = 0, lim =2
x→+∞ x→+∞ x→+∞ G(x)
and
F 0 (x)
lim = 1,
x→+∞ G0 (x)
thus obtaining a “counterexample” to L’Hospital’s rule. The catch is that
there are arbitrarily large values of x for which G0 (x) = 0, contradicting
one (often forgotten) assumption of the rule. Our construction is easy to be
modified in order to make the functions F and G of class C ∞ . In [1] it is
given a family of counterexamples to L’Hospital’s rule involving elementary
functions given by simple formulas which are more suited to be presented in
introductory Differential Calculus courses, but in those examples the limit
F (x)
limx→+∞ G(x) does not exist. Our example has the disadvantage of requiring
a more involved construction, but it is more eye catching in the sense that
F (x) F 0 (x)
both limits limx→+∞ G(x) and limx→+∞ G 0 (x) exist but are different.

Let φ : 0, 2 → R be a fixed continuous function such that:

 1

• φ(0) = φ 12 = 0;

• φ is positive in the open interval 0, 12 ;

 
R1
• 02 φ(t) dt = 1.
We will define continuous functions f : [1, +∞[ → R and g : [1, +∞[ → R
such that, for every positive integer n, the restriction of f and g to n, n+ 12

is a positive scalar multiple of a translation of φ and the restriction of f and
1

g to n + 2 , n + 1 is a negative scalar multiple of a translation of φ. More
precisely, we will construct sequences
(1) (an )n≥1 , (ān )n≥1 , (bn )n≥1 , (b̄n )n≥1
of positive real numbers and with those sequences in hand we set
f (x) = an φ(x − n), g(x) = bn φ(x − n),
for every x ∈ n, n + 21 and every positive integer n and
 

f (x) = −ān φ x − n − 12 , g(x) = −b̄n φ x − n − 21 ,

Date: May 17th, 2020.

1
 COUNTEREXAMPLE TO L’HOSPITAL’S RULE 2

for every x ∈ n + 12 , n + 1 and every positive integer n. The sequences (1)

 
will be chosen with
X∞ X∞ X∞ X∞
an < +∞, ān < +∞, bn < +∞, b̄n < +∞
n=1 n=1 n=1 n=1

which implies that the improper integrals of f and g over [1, +∞[ are ab-
solutely convergent. The functions F : [1, +∞[ → R and G : [1, +∞[ → R
defined by
Z +∞ Z +∞
F (x) = f (t) dt, G(x) = g(t) dt,
x x
for all x ≥ 1 are thus of class C 1 and satisfy:
lim F (x) = lim G(x) = 0.
x→+∞ x→+∞

Moreover, we have F0 = −f and G0 = −g. Let us now construct the

sequences (1). First, we set
1 3 1 1
xn = √ + , x̄n = √ + ,
n n n n
1 1 1
yn = √ + , ȳn = √ ,
n n n
and then we define (1) by setting
an = xn − xn+1 , ān = x̄n − x̄n+1
bn = yn − yn+1 , b̄n = ȳn − ȳn+1 ,
for every positive integer n. Clearly (xn )n≥1 , (x̄n )n≥1 , (yn )n≥1 and (ȳn )n≥1
are strictly decreasing sequences of positive real numbers converging to zero
and (an )n≥1 , (ān )n≥1 , (bn )n≥1 and (b̄n )n≥1 are sequences of positive real
numbers such that
X∞ X∞
(2) ai = xn , āi = x̄n ,
i=n i=n
∞
X ∞
X
(3) bi = yn , b̄i = ȳn ,
i=n i=n
for every positive integer n. A simple computation shows that
√ √
n+1− n 3 1 3
an = p + =p √ √
+ ,
n(n + 1) n(n + 1) n(n + 1) n + n + 1 n(n + 1)
1 1
ān = bn = p √ √
+ ,
n(n + 1) n + n + 1 n(n + 1)
1
b̄n = p √ √

n(n + 1) n + n + 1
 COUNTEREXAMPLE TO L’HOSPITAL’S RULE 3

for every positive integer n, from which it follows easily that

3 1 3 1
(4) lim an n 2 = , lim ān n 2 = ,
n→+∞ 2 n→+∞ 2
3 1 3 1
(5) lim bn n 2 = , lim b̄n n 2 =
n→+∞ 2 n→+∞ 2
and:
an ān
lim = 1, lim = 1.
n→+∞ bn n→+∞ b̄
n
The equality
F 0 (x) f (x)
lim 0
= lim =1
x→+∞ G (x) x→+∞ g(x)
F (x)
is now easily established. It remains to show that limx→+∞ G(x) = 2. We
start by considering integer values of x. Using (2) and (3), we see that for
each positive integer n we have
2 1
(6) F (n) = xn − x̄n = , G(n) = yn − ȳn =
n n
and
F (n) xn − x̄n
(7) = = 2;
G(n) yn − ȳn
moreover, for x ∈ [n, n + 1] we have the following estimates:
Z n+1
(8) |F (x) − F (n)| ≤ |f (t)| dt = an + ān ,
n
Z n+1
(9) |G(x) − G(n)| ≤ |g(t)| dt = bn + b̄n .
n
If for each x ≥ 1 we denote by n(x) the unique positive integer such that
x ∈ [n(x), n(x) + 1[, then (4), (5), (6), (8) and (9) yield:



F (x) − F n(x) G(x) − G n(x)
lim
= 0, lim
= 0.
x→+∞ F n(x) x→+∞ G n(x)
Thus
F (x) G(x)
(10) lim
= 1, lim
=1
x→+∞ F n(x) x→+∞ G n(x)

and using (7) we get:

F (x) F n(x)
lim = lim
= 2.
x→+∞ G(x) x→+∞ G n(x)

Note that (10) also implies that the quotients

F (x) G(x)

,

F n(x) G n(x)
 COUNTEREXAMPLE TO L’HOSPITAL’S RULE 4

are positive for sufficiently large x and thus by (6) we conclude that F (x)
and G(x) are also both positive for sufficiently large x.

References
[1] R. P. Boas, Counterexamples to L’Hôpital’s rule, American Mathematical Monthly,
1986, [Link]
and-notes/counterexamples-to-lh-pitals-rule.

Departamento de Matemática,
Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil
Email address: tausk@[Link]
URL: [Link]