AP Calculus AB and BC glossary
Periodic Function
Also called: Periodicity, Period of a function
A periodic function repeats its values on a fixed period: some p > 0 satisfies f(x + p) = f(x) for every x in the domain, and the period means the smallest such p.
Differentiate both sides of and the chain rule gives , so every derivative of a periodic function is again periodic. That is all periodicity buys. The four step cycle comes from the specific rules and , not from repetition: is periodic, every derivative of it is too, and yet , which is nowhere near a return to .
Accumulation is where the pattern can break. is still periodic, but is not, because the integrand has a non zero average over one period and the running total drifts upward forever.
The mistake
Turning L'Hopital's rule loose on a periodic piece. For , differentiating gives , which never settles, and a failed L'Hopital attempt proves nothing about the original. Split it as and the limit is .
Appears in: Unit 1: Limits and Continuity