TITLE: Is $\lim _{x\rightarrow 0}\frac {1} {x}=\infty$ right?
QUESTION [7 upvotes]: I just learned a little about the limit by myself, and I wonder the result of $\lim _{x\rightarrow 0}\dfrac {1} {x}$.
In order to get the answer, I asked one of my friends, and he told me that it is equal to $\infty$:
$$\lim _{x\rightarrow 0}\dfrac {1} {x}=\infty$$
But I was still puzzled.
In my opinion, the variable $x$ can approach $0$ from both positive direction and negative direction. So I get $\lim _{x\rightarrow 0^+}\dfrac {1} {x}=+\infty$ and $\lim _{x\rightarrow 0^-}\dfrac {1} {x}=-\infty$.
Could you tell me your ideas about the result of $\lim _{x\rightarrow 0}\dfrac {1} {x}$?
Thanks a lot!

REPLY [4 votes]: Certainly $\displaystyle\lim_{x\to0}\frac1x=\infty$ within the projective line $\mathbb R\cup\{\infty\}$.  But when one works in another conventional space $\mathbb R\cup\{\pm\infty\}$ then one of the one-sided limits is $+\infty$ and the other is $-\infty$.

REPLY [2 votes]: $\lim_{x\to x_{0}}f\left(x\right)=\infty\Longleftrightarrow\lim_{x\to x_{0}}\left|f\left(x\right)\right|=+\infty $
Unsigned infinity as infinite distance from $0$ (or any real number) - in both directions. Signed infinity as infinite distance in only direction.  
Wiki calls this alternative notation - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limit_of_a_function#Alternative_notation 
I learned about it by such definition:

neighborhood of $U_\epsilon(\infty)$ is a set of the form ${x: |x|>\dfrac{1}{\epsilon}}$

Using this definition, $f(x)$ gets more and more close to $\infty$ (when $x\to 0$).
And the limit $\lim _{x\rightarrow 0}\dfrac {1} {x}=\infty$ is calculated correctly.