THEME 1.5.

The Completeness Property and the Existence of a Least Upper

Bound of a Set of Numbers

Definition 1. A set X ⊂ R is said to be bounded above (resp. bounded below ) if there exists a
number c ∈ R such that x ≤ c (resp. c ≤ x) for all x ∈ X.
The number c in this case is called an upper bound (resp. lower bound ) of the set X. It is
also called a majorant (resp. minorant) of X.
Definition 2. A set that is bounded both above and below is called bounded.
Definition 3. An element a ∈ X is called the largest or maximal (resp. smallest or minimal )
element of X if x ≤ a (resp. a ≤ x) for all x ∈ X.
We now introduce some notation and at the same time give a formal expression to the
definition of maximal and minimal elements:
(a = max X) :=(x ∈ X ∧ ∀x ∈ X (x ≤ a)),
(a = min X) :=(x ∈ X ∧ ∀x ∈ X (a ≤ x)).
Along with the notation max X (read “the maximum of X”) and min X (read “the minimum
of X”) we also use the respective expressions maxx∈X x and minx∈X x.
It follows immediately from the order property 1≤ that if there is a maximal (resp. minimal)
element in a set of numbers, it is the only one.
However, not every set, not even every bounded set, has a maximal or minimal element.
For example, the set X = {x ∈ R : 0 ≤ x < 1} has a minimal element. But, as one can
easily verify, it has no maximal element.
Definition 4. The smallest number that bounds a set X ⊂ R from above is called the least
upper bound (or the exact upper bound ) of X and denoted sup X (read “the supremum of X”)
or supx∈X x.
This is the basic concept of the present subsection. Thus
(s = sup X) := (∀x ∈ X(x ≤ s)) ∧ (∀s′ ≤ s ∃x′ ∈ X(s′ < x′ )).
The expression in the first set of parentheses on the right-hand side here says that s is an
upper bound for X; the expression in the second set says that s is the smallest number having
this property. More precisely, the expression in the second set of parentheses asserts that any
number smaller that s is not an upper bound of X.
The concept of the greatest lower bound (or exact lower bound ) of a set X is introduced
similarly as the largest of the lower bounds of X.
Definition 5.
(i = inf X) := (∀x ∈ X(i ≤ x)) ∧ (∀i′ > i ∃x′ ∈ X (x′ < i′ )).
Along with the notation inf X (read “the infimum of X”) one also uses the notation inf x∈X x
for the greatest lower bound of X.
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Thus we have given the following definitions:

sup X := min{c ∈ R : ∀x ∈ X (x ≤ c)},
inf X := max{c ∈ R : ∀x ∈ X (c ≤ x)}.
But we said above that not every set has a minimal or maximal element. Therefore the
definitions we have adopted for the least upper bound and greatest lower bound require an
argument, provided by the following lemma.
Lemma (The least upper bound principle). Every nonempty set of real numbers that is
bounded from above has a unique least upper bound.
Proof. Since we already know that the minimal element of a set numbers is unique, we need
only verify that the least upper bound exists.
Let X ⊂ R be a given set and Y = {y ∈ R : ∀x ∈ X (x ≤ y)}. By hypothesis, X ̸= ∅ and
Y ̸= ∅. Then, by the completeness property there exists c ∈ R such that ∀x ∈ X ∀y ∈ Y
(x ≤ c ≤ y). The number c is therefore both a majorant of X and a minorant of Y . Being a
majorant of X, c is an element of Y . But then, as a minorant of Y , it must be the minimal
element of Y . Thus c = min Y = sup X. 
Naturally the existence and uniqueness of the greatest lower bound of a nonempty set of
numbers that is bounded from below is analogous, that is, the following proposition holds.
Lemma (The greatest lower bound principle). Every nonempty set of real numbers that
is bounded from below has a unique greatest lower bound.
We shall not take time to give the proof.
We now return to the set X = {x ∈ R : 0 ≤ x < 1}. By the lemma just proved it must have
a least upper bound. By the very definition of the set X and the definition of the least upper
bound, it is obvious that sup X ≤ 1.
To prove that sup X = 1 it is thus necessary to verify that for any number q < 1 there exists
x ∈ X such that q < x; simply put, this means merely that there are numbers between q and
1. It is easy to see that 2−1 (q + 1) is a such number.
As for the greatest lower bound, it always coincides with the minimal element of a set, if
such an element exists. Thus, from this consideration alone we have inf X = 0 in the present
example.

Problems
1. Using the principle of induction, show that
a) the sum x1 +· · ·+xn of real numbers is defined independently of the insertion of parentheses
to specify the order of addition;
b) the same is true for the product x1 · · · xn ;
c) |x1 + · · · + xn | ≤ |x1 | + · · · + |xn |;
d) |x1 · · · xn | = |x1 | · · · |xn |;
2. Let A + B be the set of numbers of the form a + b and A · B the set of numbers of the
form a · b, where a ∈ A ⊂ R and b ∈ B ⊂ R. Determine whether it is always true that
a) sup(A + B) = sup A + sup B,
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b) sup(A · B) = sup A · sup B.

3. Let −A be the set of numbers of the form −a, where a ∈ A ⊂ R. Show that
sup(−A) = − inf A.
4. Find the sup and inf of the following sets:
A =(−1, 1] = {x ∈ R : −1 < x ≤ 1};
B =(−∞, 5) = {x ∈ R : x < 5};
{ n2 }
C= :n∈N ;
n+1
{1 }
D= :n∈N .
n
{ 4n − 1 }
5. If A = : n ∈ N , find the set of all upper bounds for A.
6n + 3
{ n2 }
6. If A = : n ∈ N , find sup A and the set all upper bounds for A.
n+1
The next exercise uses the following notation concerning subsets A and B of R:
−A ={−a : a ∈ A};
A + B ={a + b : a ∈ A, b ∈ B};
A − B ={a − b : a ∈ A, b ∈ B}.
7. Let A and B be non-empty subsets of R. Prove that:
(a) inf A ≤ sup A;
(b) sup(−A) = − inf A and inf(−A) = − sup A;
(c) sup(A + B) = sup A + sup B and inf(A + B) = inf A + inf B;
(d) sup(A − B) = sup A − inf B;
(e) if A ⊂ B, then sup A ≤ sup B and inf B ≤ inf A.
8. Prove that there is no rational number whose square is 2.
√
9. Prove that if p > 0 is an integer but not the square of an integer, then p is an irrational
number.
10. Prove that for any real number x there is an integer n such that n ≤ x < n + 1.
11. Prove that between any two real numbers, there is a rational number.
12. Prove that between any two real numbers, there is an irrational number.