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Consider the limit and continuity of the floor function of (1/x)

Define:

    \[ f(x) = \left\lfloor \frac{1}{x} \right\rfloor \qquad \text{for } x \neq 0, \]

where \lfloor \ \rfloor denotes the greatest integer function, or floor function. Sketch the graph of f(x) for -2 \leq x \leq -\frac{1}{5} and \frac{1}{5} \leq x \leq 2. Evaluate

    \[ \lim_{x \to 0^+} f(x) \qquad \text{and} \qquad \lim_{x \to 0^-} f(x). \]

Is it possible to define f(0) in a way that makes f(x) continuous at 0.


First, we sketch the graph of f on the requested intervals.

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As x \to 0^+, f(x) takes on arbitrarily large positive values.
As x \to 0^-, f(x) takes on arbitrarily large negative values.

There is no way to define f(0) to make f continuous at 0.

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