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Lecture 6

The document discusses properties of limits of sequences including constant sequences, arithmetic operations on limits, proofs of summation rules, boundedness of convergent sequences, and ordering of limits. Key concepts are that the limit of a constant sequence is the constant, common arithmetic rules apply to limits of sums and products, convergent sequences are bounded, and limits are ordered if the sequences are ordered.

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5 views

Lecture 6

The document discusses properties of limits of sequences including constant sequences, arithmetic operations on limits, proofs of summation rules, boundedness of convergent sequences, and ordering of limits. Key concepts are that the limit of a constant sequence is the constant, common arithmetic rules apply to limits of sums and products, convergent sequences are bounded, and limits are ordered if the sequences are ordered.

Uploaded by

The trickster
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Lec 6: Properties of limits

MATH 147 Section 2, Fall Term 2022

I (We will first finish the material from Lecture 5)


I Combinations of sequences
I Bounds for sequences

Key references: Text book sec 1.3.2


Constant sequences

Proposition 3
Let c be a real number. Then, lim c = c.
n→∞
Arithmetic of limits of sequences

Proposition 5, 4, 7, 8
Let {an }∞ ∞
n=1 and {bn }n=1 be two convergent sequences of real numbers. If lim an = L and lim bn = M, then
n→∞ n→∞
the following four statements hold:
1. lim (an + bn ) = L + M,
n→∞

2. for any α ∈ R, lim (αan ) = αL,


n→∞

3. lim (an bn ) = LM, and


n→∞

4. lim (an /bn ) = L/M if M 6= 0 and bn 6= 0 for all n.


n→∞
Proof of Part 1 (sum rule)

Proof.
We will show that lim (an + bn ) = L + M.
n→∞

Given ε > 0,
there exists N1 such that |an − L| < ε/2 for all n ≥ N1 , and
there exists N2 such that |bn − M| < ε/2 for all n ≥ N2 .
We need to show that there exists N such that |(an + bn ) − (L + M)| < ε for all n ≥ N.
Let N = max{N1 , N2 }. Then,

|an − L| < ε/2 and |bn − M| < ε/2 for all n ≥ N.

It follows that for all n ≥ N we have

|(an + bn ) − (L + M)| = |(an − L) + (bn − M)|


≤ |an − L| + |bn − M|
< ε.
Boundedness of convergent sequences

Definition
We say that a sequence {an } is bounded if there exists a real number M such that |an | ≤ M for all n.

Proposition 6
Every convergent sequence is bounded.

Strategy for proof:


1. Suppose {an }∞
n=1 converges to L.

2. Use definition of limit to find N so that an is close to L for n ≥ N.


3. There are only a finite number of remaining terms a1 , a2 , ..., aN−1 to consider.
4. Show that in all cases, |an | must be smaller than some bound.
Ordering of limits

Proposition 9
Suppose an < bn for all n, lim an = L and lim bn = M.
n→∞ n→∞

Then, L ≤ M.

Remarks:
1. We cannot conclude that L < M.
2. We have the same conclusion if we instead assume an ≤ bn for all n.
3. We can reverse all of the inequalities (equivalent to switching the names of the sequences).

Theorem (Squeeze Theorem)


Let {an }, {bn }, and {cn } be three sequences of real numbers. If

an ≤ bn ≤ cn for all n and lim an = lim cn = L,


n→∞ n→∞

then lim bn = L.
n→∞

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