Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

MA 105 Calculus

Short Quiz 1 : Solution and Marking Scheme

Date: August 6, 2019 Day: Wednesday

Time: 2.00 PM – 2.05 PM Max. Marks: 5

1. State whether the following statement is true or false. Justify your answer.

If S is a nonempty subset of R such that S is bounded above and if

c := sup S, then there exists a sequence (xn ) of elements of S such
that (xn ) is convergent and xn → c.

[2 marks for correct alternative (T/F); 3 marks for correct justification]

Answer: TRUE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [2]

Justification: Since c = sup S, any real number < c can not be an upper bound
of S. Hence for each n ∈ N, there is xn ∈ S such that c − n1 < xn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .[1]
Since c is an upper bound of S, we see that
1 1 1
c− < xn ≤ c < c + , and so |xn − c| < for all n ∈ N. [1]
n n n
Hence by Sandwich Theorem, we can conclude that xn → c. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [1]
(Alternatively, one can also use the Archimedean property and the -n0 definition
of convergence of sequences to obtain xn → c. This is fine too.)