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This is a follow-up to my last question: Modulus of Continuity. I accidentally asked the wrong question there, so I'm going to start over and hopefully ask the right question.

I'll repeat the relevant definitions. Let $\rho: \mathbb{R}^+ \to \mathbb{R}^+$ be a continuous nondecreasing function such that $\rho(t) = 0$ if and only of $t = 0$. If you can answer my question in the special case $\rho(t) = Ct$ where $C$ is a constant then it will probably be possible to adapt your construction to the general case.

Say that a function $f: X \to \mathbb{R}$ on a metric space has modulus of continuity $\rho$ at a point $x_0 \in X$ if $|f(x) - f(x_0)| \leq \rho(d(x,x_0))$ for every $x \in X$. For example, a function has modulus of continuity $Ct$ at $x_0$ if and only if it is Lipschitz with Lipschitz constant $C$ at $x_0$.

Question If $X$ is a compact metric space without isolated points, is it true that the set of all continuous functions on $X$ which have modulus of continuity $\rho$ at some point of $X$ is nowhere dense in $C(X)$ equipped with the supremum norm?

To prove that the answer is affirmative for a given $X$ one must be able to construct functions of arbitrarily small norm which oscillate arbitrarily rapidly. For example, if $\rho(t) = Ct$ and $X = [0,1]$ then one can use a piecewise linear function such that the slope of each linear piece is larger than $C$ in absolute value. However, I don't see how to generalize this idea to an arbitrary compact metric space without isolated points.

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    Posted even on Mathoverflow. Here: http://mathoverflow.net/questions/81508/modulus-of-continuity2011-11-21

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