Exercises on Sup and Inf

12 ottobre 2020

1. Identify supremum and infimum of the following sets and then prove that what you have
found is true using the definition of supremum and infimum. Furthermore, tell whether
they are also maximum and minimum.

(a) E = x ∈ R : x = n1 , n ∈ N \ {0}


(b) E = x ∈ R : x = 2n+3

n+1
,n∈N
(c) E = {x ∈ R : x = (−1)n n, n ∈ N \ {0}}
√
3
(d) E = {x ∈ [−π, π) : sin x > − 2
}
n+2
(e) E = {x ∈ R : x = cos(nπ) + n+1
, n ∈ N} .

2. Find infimum and supremum of these sets and express them through a compact formula.
Use the definitions to prove that they are really the infimum and the supremum of these
sets.

−1 − n1 , 2 + n1
T

(a) E =
n∈N\{0}

−1 − n1 , 2 − 1
T

(b) E = n
n∈N\{0}
h 
1 1
T
(c) E = − log n , en
n∈N\{0}

−1 + n1 , n
S 

(d) E =
n∈N\{0}

3. Prove that if A ⊂ B ⊂ R, then sup A ≤ sup B and inf A ≥ inf B.

4. Given a function f : D → R, it is possible to define its supremum and its infimum as

sup f (x) := sup Ran(f ), inf f (x) := inf Ran(f ).

x∈D x∈D

Prove that, given f, g : R → R, these two inequalities hold

sup{f (x) + g(x)} ≤ sup f (x) + sup g(x),

x∈R x∈R x∈R

inf {f (x) + g(x)} ≥ inf f (x) + inf g(x).

x∈R x∈R x∈R