Math 447: Quiz 1

Solution

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1. Let f (x) = , x 6= 0, x ∈ R.
x2
(a) Determine the direct image f (E) where E = {x ∈ R : 1 ≤ x ≤ 2}.
Answer:
f (E) = {x ∈ R : 1/4 ≤ x ≤ 1}
(b) Determine the inverse image f −1 (G) where G = {x ∈ R : 1 ≤ x ≤ 4}.
Answer:
x ∈ f −1 (G) if and only if 1 ≤ 1/x2 ≤ 4.
That is, x2 ≤ 1 and x2 ≥ 1/4. This in turn is valid if and only if x ∈ [−1, −1/2] ∪ [1/2, 1].
Therefore,
f −1 (G) = [−1, −1/2] ∪ [1/2, 1].

2. Prove that n + 1 ≤ 2n for all n ∈ N.

Proof. We use Mathematical Induction to prove that statement P (n) := n + 1 ≤ 2n is true for
all n ∈ N.
When n = 1, P (1) is true since 1 + 1 = 2 = 21 .
Assume now that k ∈ N and P (k) is true. We would like to show that P (k + 1) is true as well.
To that end, by induction assumption and the fact that 1 ≤ 2n for all n ∈ N, we have

(k + 1) + 1 ≤ 2k + 1 ≤ 2k + 2k = 2.2k = 2k+1 .

That is P (k + 1) is true. By PMI, P (n) is true for all n ∈ N.