Continuity

Prepared by Augustine Musukwa

EMT 3602-Real Analysis

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Continuity

Introduction
In calculus, we say that a function is continuous at c if
lim f (x) = f (c). In Real Analysis we will give a prise  − δ
x→c
definition of continuity and show some relationships with limits and
sequences.

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Continuity

Continuous Function
Let f : D → R and let c ∈ D. We say that f is continuous at c if
for every  > 0 there exist δ > 0 such that |f (x) − f (c)| < 
wherever |x − c| < δ and x ∈ D. If f is continuous at each point
of a subset S of D, the f is said to be continuous on S. If f is
continuous on its domain D, then is said to be continuous.

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Continuity

Theorem
Let f : D → R and let c ∈ D. Then the following three conditions
are equivalent.
(i) f is continuous at c.
(ii) If (xn ) is any sequence in D such that (xn ) converges to c,
then lim f (xn ) = f (c).
n→∞
(iii) f has limit at c and lim f (x) = f (c).
x→c

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Continuity

Example 1
n
(x n ) be a polynomial of degree n. Then for any
P
Let pn (x) =
k=1
c ∈ R, lim pn (x)
= pn (c). So the polynomial is continuous on R.
x→c
In general polynomials are continuous on R.

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Continuity

Example 2
Consider (
x sin x1 if x 6= 0
f (x) =
0 if x = 0.
Show that f is continuous at 0.

Solution
Since |f (x) − f (0)| = |x sin x1 | ≤ |x| for all x. So given  > 0 we
may let δ = , then when |x − c| < δ we have
|f (x) − f (0)| ≤ |x| < δ = . This implies that f is continuous at 0.

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Continuity

Theorem
Let f and g be real valued functions that are continuous at c ∈ D.
Then
(i) f + g and f − g are continuous at c.
(ii) f · g is continuous at c.
f
(iii) g is continuous at c if g (c) 6= 0
(iv) g ◦ f is continuous at c.

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Continuity

Example 4
√
Prove that f (x) = x is continuous on its domain [0, ∞).

Solution
For all  > 0, there exist δ > 0 such that |x − c| < δ implies that
|f (x) − f (c)| <  when c ∈ √
[0, ∞).
√ 
Then we have
√ √ √ √
| x − c| = |( x − c) √x+√c | = √|x−c|
x+ c √ < √
x+ c
|x−c|
c
< . This
√
implies that |x − c| < c = δ from which we get that  = √δc .

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Continuity

Exercises
(i) Show that the absolute function f (x) = |x| is continuous at
every c ∈ R.
(ii) Let k > 0 and let f : R → R satisfy the condition

f (x) − f (y ) ≤ k|x − y |

for all x, y ∈ R. Show that f is continuous at every point

c ∈ R.

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Continuity

Properties of Continuous Functions

A real valued function f is said to be bounded if there exist M > 0
such that |f (x)| ≤ M for all x in the domain of f .

Theorem
A continuous real valued function on [a, b] is bounded and it
assumes its maximum and minimum values on [a, b]. This implies
that there exists x0 , y0 ∈ [a, b] such that f (x0 ) ≤ f (x) ≤ f (y0 ) for
all x ∈ [a, b].

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Continuity

Lemma
Let f : [a, b] → R be continuous and suppose that
f (a) < 0 < f (b). Then there exists a point c ∈ [a, b] such that
f (c) = 0.

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Continuity

Intermediate Value Theorem (IVT)

If f is a continuous real valued function on [a, b] with a < b and k
lies between f (a) and f (b), i.e., f (a) < k < f (b), then there exists
at least one c ∈ (a, b) such that f (c) = k

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Continuity

Example 5
Assuming that cos x is a continuous function, prove that x = cos x
for some x ∈ (0, π/2).

Solution
Define a function f (x) = x − cos x. Note that f (0) = −1 and
f (π/2) = π/2. Since f is continuous, there exists x0 ∈ (a, b) such
that f (x0 ) = 0 which implies x0 = cos x0 .

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Continuity

Example 6
Let f be a continuous function mapping [0, 1] into [0, 1]. Show
that f has a fixed point.

Solution
We note that the graph of f lies on the unit square. Consider
g (x) = f (x) − x which is clearly a continuous function on [0, 1].
Since g (0) = f (0) − 0 ≥ 0 and g (1) = f (1) − 1 ≤ 1 − 1 = 0. Then
by the IVT we have g (x0 ) = 0 for some x0 ∈ [0, 1]. This implies
that f (x0 ) = x0 .

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Continuity

Example 7
Show that x2x = 1 for some x ∈ (0, 1).

Solution
Define a function h(x) = x2x − 1. So h(0) = −1 and h(1) = 1.
Then by IVT, we have h(x) = 0 which implies that x2x − 1 = 0.
Thus x2x = 1.

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Continuity

Exercises
1 Show that 2x = 3x for some x ∈ (0, 1).
2 Suppose that f : [a, b] → [a, b] is continuous. Prove that f
has a fixed point.

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Continuity

Uniform Continuity
Let f : D → R. We say that f is uniformly continuous on D if for
every  > 0 there exist δ > 0 such that |f (x) − f (y )| <  whenever
|x − y | < δ and x, y ∈ D.

Remark
Note that if a function is uniformly continuous on D then it is
certainly continuous on D.
Also note that we talk of a function f being continuous at a
point and a function being uniformly continuous on a set. We
do not say that a function is uniformly continuous at a point.

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Continuity

Example 8
Prove that the function f (x) = 2x is uniformly continuous on R.

Solution
Given  > 0. We want to make |f (x) − f (y )| <  by letting x
sufficiently close to y . So

|f (x) − f (y )| = |2x − 2y | = 2|x − y |.

We thus take δ = /2, i.e., |x − y | < /2. Upon substitution we get

|f (x) − f (y )| = |2x − 2y | = 2|x − y | < 2δ = .

We conclude that f is uniformly continuous on R.

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Continuity

Example 9
Show that f (x) = x 2 is uniformly continuous on R.

Solution
Given  > 0, we show that |f (x) − f (y )| <  by letting x
sufficiently close to y . So

|f (x) − f (y )| = |x 2 − y 2 | = |x − y | · |x + y |

Observe that |x + y | is unbounded on R. Hence f cannot be

uniformly continuous on R.

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Continuity

Example 10
Show that f (x) = x 2 is uniformly continuous on [−4, 4].

Solution
Given  > 0, we show that |f (x) − f (y )| <  by letting x
sufficiently close to y . So

|f (x) − f (y )| = |x 2 − y 2 | = |x − y | · |x + y |

We observe that the interval is compact and so |x + y | ≤ 8. Which

implies that

|f (x) − f (y )| = |x 2 − y 2 | = 8|x − y | < 8δ = .

We there conclude that f is uniformly continuous on a compact set

[−4, 4].

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Continuity

Theorem
Suppose f : D → R is continuous on a compact set D, then f is
uniformly continuous on D.

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Continuity

Theorem
Suppose f : D → R is uniformly continuous on D, and suppose
that (xn ) is a Cauchy sequence in D. Then (f (xn )) is a Cauchy
sequence.

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Continuity

Proof
Given any  > 0, since f is uniformly continuous on D so there
exists a δ > 0 such that

|f (x) − f (y )| <  =⇒ |x − y | < δ

where x, y ∈ D. Since (xn ) is Cauchy so there exists a number N

such that
|xn − xm | < δ
whenever m, n > N. Thus for m, n > N we have

|f (xn ) − f (xm )| < .

Hence (f (xn )) is a Cauchy sequence.

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