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how do I show the following assertions:

  • Let $f\colon I\to \mathbb{R}$ differentiable, let $a_n,b_n$ be sequences of real numbers such that $a_n \leq c \leq b_n$, then $f'(c)= \lim \frac{f(b_n)-f(a_n)}{b_n - a_n}$
  • Let $f\colon[a,b]\to \mathbb{R}$ differentiable in $(a,b)$ with $f'$ bounded,if $f$ has the intermediate value property then $f$ is continuous in $[a,b]$.
  • Let $f(x)=\sin\left(\frac 1x\right) ,x\neq 0$ and $f(0)=0$, then $f$ has the intermediate value property.

thanks.

  • 1
    Is it homework? What did you try?2012-01-30
  • 5
    Do you need to require $b_n-a_n\rightarrow 0$ as $n\rightarrow \infty$ for the first assertion?2012-01-30
  • 0
    For the first question, try a variation of how you'd show that $f'(c)$ exists implies that at $x=c$ the symmetric derivative of $f$ exists and equals $f'(c),$ such as you can find here: http://groups.google.com/group/sci.math/msg/9948de6526d2f5a42012-01-30
  • 0
    @DavideGiraudo it isn't a homework,just a few questions that came up when I read the text.2012-01-31
  • 0
    @Paul yes! In fact, $b_n-a_n = \frac{b-a}{2^n}$2012-01-31
  • 0
    @DaveL.Renfro the page you provide does not exist2012-01-31
  • 0
    The "http://" initial part of the URL got omitted for some reason. Put that in front, or use this: 2012-01-31

1 Answers 1

1
  • We can write \begin{align*} \frac{f(b_n)-f(a_n)}{b_n-a_n}&=\frac{f(b_n)-f(c)}{b_n-c}\frac{b_n-c}{b_n-a_n}+\frac{f(c)-f(a_n)}{c-a_n}\frac{c-a_n}{b_n-a_n}\\ &=\frac{f(b_n)-f(c)}{b_n-c}\left(1+\frac{a_n-c}{b_n-a_n}\right)+\frac{f(c)-f(a_n)}{c-a_n}\frac{c-a_n}{b_n-a_n}\\ &=\frac{f(b_n)-f(c)}{b_n-c}+\frac{c-a_n}{b_n-a_n}\left(\frac{f(c)-f(a_n)}{c-a_n}-\frac{f(b_n)-f(c)}{b_n-c}\right), \end{align*} and you can conclude since $\frac{c-a_n}{b_n-a_n}$ is bounded.
  • We only have to show that $f$ is continuous at $a$ and $b$. I will do it for $a$. Let $\{x_n\}$ a sequence which converges to $a$. If $f(x_n)$ doesn't converge to $a$ then we can find a $\delta>0$ and a subsequence $\{x_{n_k}\}$ such that $|f(x_{n_k})-f(a)|\geq \delta$. We have two cases: $f(x_{n_k})-f(a)\geq \delta$ for infinitely many $k$ or $f(x_{n_k})-f(a)<\delta$. In the first case, after taking a subsequence denoted by the same way, we can find $a\leq y_{n_k}\leq x_{n_k}$ such that $f(y_{n_k})=f(x_{n_k})-\delta$, since $f(a)\leq f(x_{n_k})-\delta\leq f(x_{n_k})$. We have $$\delta=|f(x_{n_k})-f(y_{n_k})|\leq \int_{x_{n_k}}^{y_{n_k}}f'(t)dt\leq \sup |f'||x_{n_k}-y_{n_k}|\leq \sup |f'||x_{n_k}-a|,$$ which is a contradiction. The argument is quite the same for for the second case and the continuity at $b$.
  • Let $a$a$ and $b$ and if $a=0$f$ is odd.