Convergence and Continuity 2019/2020

From (4.1), we arrive at (4.3) by replacing h by x a, and vice versa. The negation
of (4.3) is
9" > 0 8 > 0 9x 2 R, |x a| < : |f (x) f (a)| ". (4.4)
While sometimes it is easier to work with (4.1) or (4.2), there are other situations
where it is more convenient to work with the equivalent statements (4.3) or (4.4).

Examples 4.4
i) Let f (x) be defined by (
1 if x 2 Q,
f (x) =
0 6 Q.
if x 2
Here is a schematic illustration of how f (x) looks.

6
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
1

r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r0r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r -

We claim that this function is not continuous anywhere.

Proof. We first show that if a 2 Q, then f is not continuous at a. We must

show that

9" > 0 8 > 0 9x 2 R, |x a| < : |f (x) f (a)| ".

As our a 2 Q, we have f (a) = 1. We pick " = 12 (in fact any " with 0 < "  1
would do). Now given any > 0 there exists an irrational number x in the
interval (a , a + ) (by Corollary 1.15 “irrational numbers are dense in R”).
For such an x, f (x) = 0 and thus
1
|f (x) f (a)| = |0 1| = 1 = ".
2
Hence f is not continuous at a.

On the other hand, if a 62 Q, then f (a) = 0. We pick again " = 12 . Given

any > 0 (by the Demon), there exists a rational number x in the interval
(a , a + ) (by Theorem 1.13 “rational numbers are dense in R”). For such
x, f (x) = 1 and hence
1
|f (x) f (a)| = |1 0| = 1 = ",
2
so f is not continuous at a.

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Convergence and Continuity 2019/2020

ii) Let f (x) be defined by (

x if x 2 Q,
f (x) =
0 6 Q.
if x 2
We claim that this function is continuous at a = 0 and not continuous at any
other point a 2 R.

r
rr
rr
6
rr
rr
r rr
r
rr
r rr
r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r0r rrrrr r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r -
r
rr
r rr
r
rr
r rr
rr

Proof. We first show that f is continuous at a = 0. We must show that

8" > 0 9 > 0 8x 2 R, |x| < : |f (x)| < ".

(This is just (4.3), where we plugged in a = 0 and f (a) = 0.)

Given any " > 0 (by the Demon), we choose = " (as this worked both for
the linear function f (x) = x and for the constant function f (x) = 0). Now, for
all x with |x| < = ", we have |f (x)| < ", as f (x) is either x or 0. Thus f is
continuous at a = 0.

Next, we show that if a 2 Q, a 6= 0, then f is not continuous at a. We must

show that

9" > 0 8 > 0 9x 2 R, |x a| < : |f (x) f (a)| ".

As a 2 Q, we have f (a) = a which motivates us to pick " = |a|

2 > 0 (in fact any
" with 0 < "  |a| would do). Now given any > 0 there exists an irrational
number x in the interval (a , a + ) (by Corollary 1.15). For such an x,
f (x) = 0 and thus

|a|
|f (x) f (a)| = |0 a| = |a| = ".
2
Hence f is not continuous at a.

Similarly, if a 62 Q, then f (a) = 0. We pick again " = |a|

2 . Given any > 0 (by
the Demon), then we pick a rational number x such that

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Convergence and Continuity 2019/2020

• x 2 (a, a + ) if a > 0,
• x 2 (a , a) if a < 0.

This ensures that |x| > |a|. We can find such an x by Theorem 1.13. As
f (x) = x, we have

|a|
|f (x) f (a)| = |x 0| = |x| |a| = ",
2
so f is not continuous at a.

Remark. It is possible to construct functions f for which the set of points a where
f is continuous is a complicated set. For example, there exists functions that are
continuous at every irrational a 2 R but not continuous at any rational a 2 R. An
example is
(
0 if x 62 Q or if x = 0,
f (x) =
1/q if x 2 Q and x = pq in lowest terms, with p > 0,

(see Exercise Sheet 9).

But let us go back to well-behaved functions.

Example 4.5
f (x) = x2 is continuous at every a 2 R. To prove this, we have to show that for
every a 2 R the following statement holds:

8" > 0 9 > 0 8h 2 R, |h| < : |(a + h)2 a2 | < ".

Let us start with an informal calculation: (a+h)2 a2 = a2 +2ah+h2 a2 = 2ah+h2 .

So if we can ensure that
"
• |2ah| < 2
"
• and |h2 | < 2

we will know that |(a + h)2 a2 | < 2" + 2" = ". For the first
p statement to hold, we
"
need < 4|a| and for the second statement we need < 2" . This leads us to the
following formal proof. (Note that we treat a = 0 separately, as we do not want to
divide by 0.)
"
p p
Proof. Given any a 2 R and " > 0, choose = min{ 4|a| , 2" } if a 6= 0 and = 2"
is a = 0. Then 8h with |h| < we have
" "
|(a + h)2 a2 | = |2ah + h2 |  |2ah| + |h2 | < + = ".
2 2
So f is continuous at a.

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Convergence and Continuity 2019/2020

Remark. A similar proof works for all polynomial functions. You will see more
examples of this type in the exercises!

What if the function f is only defined on a subset D ⇢ R, not on the whole of R?

Examples 4.6
i) f (x) = x1 . Here f is a function D ! R where D = R \ {0}.
P
ii) f (x) = 1 k=0 x . Here f : ( 1, 1) ! R.
k

P xk
iii) f (x) = 1 k=0 k . Here f : [ 1, 1) ! R.

Definition 4.7
We say that f : D ! R is continuous at a 2 D if

8" > 0 9 > 0 8x 2 D, |x a| < : |f (x) f (a)| < ". (4.5)

Example 4.8
p
f (x) = x. Here f is a function f : [0, 1) ! R. To prove that this function is
continuous at a = 0, we must show that
p
8" > 0 9 > 0 8x 2 [0, 1), |x| < : | x| < ".

But this is easy:

p
Proof. Given " > 0, we take to be "2 . Then if |x| < , we have | x| < " as
required. So f is continuous at 0.
p
Remark. f (x) = x is not di↵erentiable at x = 0, but it is continuous at x = 0.

Example 4.9
One
P1 can kprove (and we will assume this in this course) that any power series
k=0 ak x defines a continuous function from D to R, where D is the disc of
convergence of the series, i.e. D = {x 2 R : |x| < R} where R is the radius
of convergence of the series (see Theorem 3.20). In particular, exp(x), sin(x) and
cos(x) are continuous functions on all of R. Similarly, every polynomial function is
continuous at every point a 2 R, as a polynomial is a power series with only finitely
many non-vanishing coefficients ak .

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Convergence and Continuity 2019/2020

4.B Rules for continuous functions

Suppose that f : D1 ! R and g : D2 ! R are continuous. Let us construct more
continuous functions from them:

• We define cf : D1 ! R by (cf )(x) = cf (x), for c 2 R.

• We define f + g : D1 \ D2 ! R by (f + g)(x) = f (x) + g(x).

• We define f · g : D1 \ D2 ! R by (f · g)(x) = f (x)g(x). (Do not confuse this

product of f and g with the composition f g.)
f f (x)
• We define g : D1 \ D2 \ {x 2 R : g(x) 6= 0} ! R by ( fg )(x) = g(x) .

Examples 4.10
i) h(x) = x1 is the quotient of the constant function f (x) = 1 by the function
g(x) = x, and it is defined whenever g(x) 6= 0, i.e. on R \ {0}. Is this h
continuous?

ii) h(x) = sin(x) cos(x)

x2 +2
is the quotient of the function f (x) = sin(x) cos(x) by the
2
function g(x) = x + 2 and it is defined whenever g(x) 6= 0, i.e. on all of
R. Moreover, f (x) is the product of the continuous functions sin(x) and cos(x)
and g is the sum of the continuous function x2 and the constant function 2. We
want to know whether this h is continuous.

Theorem 4.11 (Building continuous functions from other continuous functions)

Suppose f : D1 ! R and g : D2 ! R are two functions, c 2 R is a constant and
a 2 D1 \ D2 . Assume moreover that f and g are continuous at a. Then

i) cf is continuous at a.

ii) f + g is continuous at a.

iii) f · g is continuous at a.
f
iv) If g(a) 6= 0, then g is continuous at a.

Proof. Exercise (on Exercise Sheet 9).

Now let us look at the composition of functions: Suppose f : D1 ! R (where

D1 ✓ R) and g : D2 ! R (where D2 ✓ R) are two functions. Then we can define
the composition g f by
(g f )(x) = g(f (x))
at all points x 2 D1 such that f (x) 2 D2 .

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Convergence and Continuity 2019/2020

Example 4.12
p
f (x) = 1 cos(x), so f : R ! [0, 2]. g(x) = x, so g : [0, 1) ! [0, 1). Then g f
is a function R ! [0, 1)
p
(g f )(x) = 1 cos(x).
f g p
In fact, g f is a function R ! [0, 2] ! [0, 2] ⇢ [0, 1). Is it continuous?

Theorem 4.13 (Continuity of composition of functions)

Suppose f : D1 ! D2 and g : D2 ! R. Moreover, suppose that a 2 D1 and that f
is continuous at a and g is continuous at f (a). Then (g f ) is continuous at a.

Informally: As f is continuous at a, we know that if x is close to a, then f (x) is

close to f (a). As g is continuous at f (a), we know that if f (x) is close to f (a), then
g(f (x)) is close to g(f (a)). So the difficulty is just to convert the words “is close to”
into a precise statement involving " and .

Proof. We must prove that if we are given any " > 0, then we can find > 0 such
that for all x with |x a| < we have |g(f (x)) g(f (a))| < ". We know by the
continuity of g at f (a) that given " > 0, there exists 1 > 0 such that 8y 2 D2 with
|y f (a)| < 1 , we have
|g(y) g(f (a))| < ".
We also know, by the continuity of f at a that given "˜ = 1, there exists > 0 such
that 8x 2 D1 with |x a| < , we have

|f (x) f (a)| < "˜ = 1.

Hence, given " > 0, we can choose 1 and then according to the above and deduce
that

8x 2 D1 , |x a| < : |f (x) f (a)| < 1 and thus |g(f (x)) g(f (a))| < ".

This proves that (g f ) is continuous at a.

Example 4.14
f : R ! R, f (x) = cos(x), g : R ! R, g(x) = exp(x).
f and g are continuous at all points x 2 R (by our assumption that power series are
continuous at all x inside their discs of convergence). Hence by the above theorem,
g f is continuous at all x 2 R, i.e. (g f )(x) = exp(cos(x)) is a continuous function
of x at all a 2 R.

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