I was assisting a TA for an introductory calculus class with the following limit,
$$\lim_{x \rightarrow \infty} \left(\frac{20x}{20x+4}\right)^{8x}$$
and I came to simple solution which involved evaluating the "reciprocal" limit
$$\lim_{z \rightarrow 0} \left(\frac{1}{1+\frac{z}{5}}\right)^{8/z}$$
by using the Taylor expansion of $\log(1+z)$ around $z=0$. However, the TA claims that the students have not learned about series expansions so that would not be a valid solution for the course. I tried applying L'Hopital's rule, which I was told the class did cover, but I was unsuccessful. As a note I will mention that
$$\lim_{x \rightarrow \infty} \left(\frac{20x}{20x+4}\right)^{8x} = e^{-8/5}.$$
Any ideas for a solution to this problem using only knowledge from a first quarter (or semester) calculus course which hasn't covered series expansions?