9/4/2020 Continuity and Differentiability

The Zebra Danio and its escape response

UBC Calculus Online Course Notes

Continuity and Differentiability

Up to this point, we have used the derivative in some powerful ways. For instance, we saw how
critical points (places where the derivative is zero) could be used to optimize various situations.
However, there are limits to these techniques which we will discuss here. Basically, these arise
when there are some points near which a function behaves poorly.

Continuity

Thus far in the course, the functions we have

considered have been continuous. To say it in plain words, this means that we can draw
the graph without lifting our pens like the graph on the right.

To be a bit more precise, we say that a function is continuous at a point a when

we can make the value of become close to f(a) by taking x close to a. We will
write this as

If this condition is not satisfied, we say that the function f is discontinuous at a. This
situation could arise in several different ways.

1. Jump Discontinuities: Consider the price of parking at a parking meter for

a length of time t. If the cost is $2 per hour, the graph of would look
something like this:

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Here we suspect that the integer values of t are discontinuities of the function
since we could not draw this graph without picking up the pen at these
points.

To use our more precise notion of continuity, let's consider the value of the
function at t = 1. We know that C(1) = 4. However, we cannot force the function
to be close to 4 by taking values of t close to 1. This is because no matter how
close we require t to be to 1, there will still be some values for which C(t) = 2 .

Notice that, for a function like this, our usual methods from calculus would not
be applicable. That is, if we wanted to find the maximum value on some interval,
we would not be able to find it by looking for critical points.

2. Vertical Asymptotes: Consider the function and remember that

the graph looks like:

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Here the function is not defined at the points and near these points,
the function becomes both arbitrarily large and arbitrarily small. Since the
function is not defined at these points, it cannot be continuous. Again, if this
function arose in a situation which we wanted to optimize, we would have to be
careful when applying our usual methods from calculus.

3. Holes: There are some situations which present us with a function which has an
"unusual" point (in fact, we'll see an example of this later on). Here is an
example:

In this example, the function is nicely defined away from the point x = 1. In fact,
if , the function is

However, if we were to consider the point x = 1, this definition no longer makes

sense since we would have to divide by zero. The function instead tells us that
the value of the function is f(1) = 3. Here is the graph

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In this example, the graph has a "hole" at the point x = 1. Again, if we were to
apply the methods we have from calculus to find the maxima or minima of this
function, we would have to take this special point into consideration.

Mathematicians have made an extensive study of discontinuities and found that they
arise in many forms. In practice, however, these are the principle types you are likely to
encounter.

Differentiability

We have earlier seen functions which

have points at which the function is not differentiable. An easy example is the absolute
value function which is not differentiable at the origin.

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Notice that this function has a minimum value at the origin, yet we could not find this
value as the critical point of the function since the derivative is not defined there
(remember that a critical point is a point where the derivative is defined and zero).

A similar example would be the function

. Notice that which shows that the derivative does not
exist at . However, this function has a minimum value at .

An example

To illustrate how to deal with these kinds of situations, here is an example. Suppose that
you are on one side of a lake listening to the radio. There is an announcement that you
have won a special prize, but you must call the radio station quickly. The nearest phone
is on the other side of the lake and you would like to reach the phone as quickly as
possible.

The situation is drawn to the

left. The lake is shaped like a
circle of radius 1 kilometer
and there is a bridge running
across the lake. You are at the
point (-1,0) while the phone is
at the point . You can
swim at 3 km/hour and run at
6 km/hour.

Let's find out how long it would take to reach the phone if you first swam across the
lake at an angle t and then ran along the shore to the phone. Remember that distance is
equal to velocity times time so that the length of time it takes to swim is equal to the
distance that you swim divided by the velocity at which you swim.

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To compute the distance you swim , we can use the law of cosines. It says that

In other words, so that the time it takes you to swim is

.

Now, once you reach the opposite shore, you still have to run a distance along the
shore. The phone is at a position which corresponds to a central angle of . Since you
finish your swim at a position which corresponds to a central angle of , the distance
you must run is

The amount of time it takes to do this is

which says that the total time it takes to reach the phone along this route is

Of course, we have to be careful since this formula assumes we are actually swimming
for some of the time. This is the case only if since when t = 0, we can just run
across the bridge which means we are running the entire way. The amount of time this
takes is . In other words, our function is

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In other words, the function is not continuous at t = 0 nor is it differentiable at .

These points will have to be tested separately.

Let's look for any critical points by computing the derivative now:

This produces critical points at . To find which path is the real minimum, we
need to test these critical point,, the point at which the function is not differentiable, the
point at which the function is not continuous and the endpoints.

This shows that the minimum occurs at t = 0 which is a point of discontinuity. The
following graph shows the function .

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