Abdelhamid Ben Badis University, Mostaganem

Faculty of Exact Sciences and Computer Science

Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
1st Year Computer Science Engineering
Mathematical Analysis1
Prof. Sidi Mohamed Bahri

Worksheet N 2
(09 october 2023)

In all exercises except exercise 7, you may use the following facts without
proof:

inf([a; b]) = min([a; b]) = a; sup([a; b]) = max([a; b]) = b:

inf(]a; b]) = a; ]a; b] does not have a minimum; sup(]a; b]) = max(]a; b]) =
b:
inf([a; b[) = min([a; b[) = a; sup([a; b[) = b; [a; b[ does not have a maxi-
mum.
inf(]a; b[) = a; ]a; b[ does not have a minimum; sup(]a; b[) = b; ]a; b[ does
not have a
maximum.

Exercise 1 In class, we claimed that the notion of supremum is a generalization

of the notion of maximum. It turns out that if the maximum of a set exists, then
the supremum is the maximum. Prove this by showing that if S is a nonempty
subset of R with maximum s0 , then sup S = s0 :

Exercise 2 (Similar to 4.5) Let S be a nonempty subset of R that is bounded

above.

(a) Prove that if sup S 2 S, then sup S = max S.

(b) Prove that if sup S 2 = S, then S doesn’t have a maximum. (An identical
argument shows that inf S 2 = S, then S doesn’t have a minimum –you can
use this result later in the problem set.)

Exercise 3 (Similar to 4.6) Let S be a nonempty bounded subset of R.

(a) Prouve that inf S sup S.

(b) What can you say about the number of elements in S if inf S = sup S.

Exercise 4 (Similar to 4.7) Suppose S and T are nonempty bounded subsets

of R:

(a) Prouve that if S T , then inf T inf S sup S sup T .

1
(b) Prouve that sup(S [ T ) = maxfsup S; sup T g. (Note: for this part, do not
assume S T .)

Exercise 5 (Similar to 4.9) Consider the following proposition:

Proposition 6 Every nonempty subset S of R that is bounded below has an

in…mum. (See also Corollary 4.5 on p23 of the textbook.) This question will
lead you through the proof of the proposition.

(a) Suppose S is as in the proposition above. De…ne the set S = f s : s 2 Sg.

Show that S is
bounded above.
(b) Prouve that S has a supremum, sup( S).

(c) Prouve that sup( S) is the in…mum of S.

Exercise 7 (Similar to 4.14) Let A and B be nonempty bounded subsets of

R, and de…ne
A + B = fa + b : a 2 A et b 2 Bg:
Prove
sup(A + B) = sup A + sup B:
Hint: Show that for all b 2 B, sup(A + B) b is an upper bound for A. Hence
sup A sup(A + B) b for all b 2 B. Then show sup(A + B) sup A is an
upper bound for B.

Exercise 8 (Similar to 4.8) Let S and T be nonempty subsets of R with the

following property:
s t pour tout s 2 S et t 2 T:

(a) Show that S is bounded above and T is bounded below. (Hint: This is almost
obvious. Your
proof should be short.)

(b) Prove sup S inf T .

(c) Given an example of such sets S and T where S \ T is nonempty.
(d) Give an example of sets S and T where sup S = inf T et S \ T is the empty
set.

Exercise 9 For each of the sets below, answer the following questions: Is it
bounded above? If so, what is its supremum? Is it bounded below? If so, what
is its in…mum? You do not need to justify your answers.
p p
(a) 2; 2 ;

2
(b) f 1; 0; e; g ;
(c) f1g ;
(d) [1
n=1 [2n 1; 2n] ;
1
(e) 1 n : n 2 N ;(Hint: use Exercise 9)

(f ) x 2 R : x2 < 1 ;
1 1 1 1
(g) \1
n=1 1 n; 1 + n ; (Hint: use Question 10 to show \1
n=1 1 n; 1 + n =
[ 1; 1])

Exercise 10 Follow the same instructions as in Exercise1 for the following

sets:
1
(a) :n2N ;
n2
n n
o
(b) 1 + ( n1) : n 2 N ;

(c) fq 2 Q : q 0g ;

(d) q 2 Q : q2 0 ;
1 1
(e) \1
n=1 n; n ;

(f ) x 2 R : x3 2 ;
(g) fsin n : n 2 Ng :

The remaining questions use the Archimedean Property and Dense-

ness of Q in R

Exercise 11 Given a; b 2 R, consider the set (a; b]. Find the maximum, mini-
mum, supremum, and in…mum of the set or state that they do not exist. Justify
your answer using the de…nitions.
Hint: If you want to prove that a certain number s0 is the supremum (least
upper bound) of a set, you can proceed as follows. First, show s0 is an upper
bound. Then, assume for the sake of contradiction, that there is another upper
bound s1 that is even smaller, s1 < s0 . Then show there is some element in
the set larger than s1 . This contradicts the fact that s1 was an upper bound.
Therefore, s0 must be the least upper bound.
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Exercise 12 Prove that if a > 0, then there exists n 2 N satisfying n < a < n.
1
Exercise 13 Let a; b 2 R. Show if a b+ n for all n 2 N, then a b.
(Compare to Question 3 on HW 1.)