Limits and Continuity

LESSON 1.5: CONTINUITY OF A FUNCTION

OBJECTIVES:
At the end of the lessons, the students must have;
1.illustrated continuity of a function at a number,
2. determined whether a function is continuous at a
number or not,
3.illustrated continuity of a function on an interval or not,
4. determined whether a function is continuous on an
interval or not, and
5. illustrated different types of discontinuity
(hole/removable, jump/essential, asymptotic/infinite).
Consider the function:
Verifying by the graph.
Continuity of a Function at a Number
The function is continuous at a number if
and only if the following three conditions
hold:
1. exists,
2. exists, and
3.
Types of Discontinuity

a. Removable Discontinuity
The function has a removable discontinuity
at if exists, but is undefined or . The
discontinuity can be removed by redefining so
that = .
Example 1.
Let
Show that the function has a
removable discontinuity at .
Verifying by the graph.
Types of Discontinuity

b. Essential Discontinuity
The function has an essential discontinuity
at if does not exist.
This discontinuity is nonremovable. We have
two cases.
i. If exists and exists but
, then does not exist.
This discontinuity is also called jump discontinuity.
Example 2.
Show that has a jump discontinuities at and
Verifying by the graph.
 ii. If or , then does not exist. This essential discontinuity
is also called an infinite discontinuity.
Example 3.
Let
Show that has an infinite discontinuity at
Verifying by the graph.
 Continuity of a Function on an Interval
is continuous on an open interval if it is
continuous at every x-value in the interval.
 is continuous on a closed interval if and only if
a. is continuous on the open interval ,
b. is continuous from the right at , which means that
exists, exists, and
c. is continuous from the left at , which means that
exists, exists, and
Example 4.
Let
Show that is continuous on the interval .
Verifying by the graph.
Example 5.
Let
Show that f(x) is continuous at the interval [-2,3]
Verifying by the graph.
Theorems on the Continuity of a Function

1. Polynomial functions are continuous everywhere.

2. Rational , are continuous at every number in
their domains.
3. The radical function where is a positive
integer, is continuous at every number if is odd.
If is even, is continuous at every positive
number.
4. The exponential function , where ,, is
continuous at every number in its domain.
5. The logarithmic function , where ,, is
continuous for all numbers greater than zero.

6. The trigonometric functions are continuous at

every number in their domains.
7, Suppose and are functions that are
continuous at . Then,
a. is continuous at c.
b. is continuous at c.
c. is continuous at c.
d. is continuous at c if .
e. is continuous at c, where is a real number.
8. If the function is continuous at x=c and the
function is continuous at, then the composition
of the functions and , denoted by is continuous
at
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