Why can’t a function graph have two oblique asymptotes as x approaches positive infinity?

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Krystian Karczyński

To answer the question posed in the title, we don’t need to go back to the definition of an oblique asymptote, we just need to know what a function is.

As is often the case in mathematics, let’s imagine that the graph of the function HAS two different oblique asymptotes at , and show that assuming this will definitely lead us to a contradiction, so this assumption cannot be accepted.

Graph

In the graph, these asymptotes might look like this:

Graph with two asymptotes And the graph of the function should approach these asymptotes at , so it will look like this:

Graph with two asymptotes and functionAnd what? Can it be like this? Can the graph of a function look like this? Or do we have a problem here?

Problem

Of course, we have a problem. What is shown above cannot be the graph of a function. Let’s go back to the basics, a function by definition is a mapping that assigns exactly one y value to each x argument. And what does our graph show?

Graph with marked x0 argumentWe can see that, for example, the argument is assigned two values – and . And that can’t happen in a function graph, because each x argument must correspond to only one y value.

Therefore, a function cannot have two different oblique asymptotes at . The entire reasoning can be repeated accordingly for 🙂

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