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Week XI

The document defines continuity of functions and outlines the conditions for a function to be continuous at a point and on an interval. It provides examples of functions and their continuity, discusses one-sided continuity, and presents general properties of continuity for various types of functions. Additionally, it explains how to solve inequalities using continuity properties and introduces the concept of partition numbers to determine intervals where functions do not change sign.

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Ma Rie
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4 views3 pages

Week XI

The document defines continuity of functions and outlines the conditions for a function to be continuous at a point and on an interval. It provides examples of functions and their continuity, discusses one-sided continuity, and presents general properties of continuity for various types of functions. Additionally, it explains how to solve inequalities using continuity properties and introduces the concept of partition numbers to determine intervals where functions do not change sign.

Uploaded by

Ma Rie
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Continuity

Definition (Continuity). A function f is continuous at the point x = c if:


1. exists; 2. exists; 3. .

A function is continuous on the open interval if it is continuous at each point on the


interval.

If one or more of the three conditions in the definition fails, then the function is
discontinuous at x = c.

Example 1 (Continuity of Functions). Using the definition of continuity, discuss the continuity
of each function at the indicated point(s).
(A) at x = 2; (B) at x = 2; (C) at x = 0 and at x = 1.

Solution.
(A) f is continuous at x = 2, since
.
(B) g is not continuous at x = 2, since g(2) = 0 / 0 is not defined.
(C) h is not continuous at x = 0, since h(0) = 0 / 0 is not defined; also, does not exist. h is
continuous at x = 1, since
.

We can also talk about one-sided continuity, just as we talked about one-sided limits. For
example, a function f is said to be continuous on the right at x = c if and
continuous on the left at x = c if . A function is continuous on the closed
interval [a, b] if it is continuous on the open interval (a, b) and is continuous both on the right at
a and on the left at b.

1
Continuity Properties

General Continuity Properties: If two functions are continuous on the same interval, then their
sum, difference, product, and quotient are continuous on the same interval except for values of x
that make a denominator 0.

Theorem 1 (Continuity Properties of Some Specific Functions).


(A) A constant function , where k is a constant, is continuous for all x.
(B) For n a positive integer, is continuous for all x.
(C) A polynomial function is continuous for all x.
(D) A rational function is continuous for all x except those values that make a denominator
0.
(E) For n an odd positive integer greater than 1, is continuous wherever is
continuous.
(F) For n an even positive integer, is continuous wherever is continuous and
nonnegative.

Example 2 (Using Continuity Properties). Using Theorem 1 and the general properties of
continuity, determine where each function is continuous.
(A) ; (B) ; (C) ; (D) .

Solution.
(A) Since f is a polynomial function, f is continuous for all x.
(B) Since f is a rational function, f is continuous for all x except -2 and 3 (values that make the
denominator 0).
(C) The polynomial function is continuous for all x. Since n = 3 is odd, f is continuous
for all x.
(D) The polynomial function is continuous for all x and nonnegative for . Since n = 2
is even, f is continuous for , or on the interval .

2
Solving Inequalities Using Continuity Properties

If f is continuous and on the interval (a, b), then cannot change sign on (a, b).

Theorem 2 (Sign Properties on an Interval ( a, b) ): If f is continuous on (a, b) and


for all x in (a, b), then either for all x in (a, b) or for all x in (a, b).

Example 3 (Solving an Inequality). Solve .

Solution. We start by using the left side of the inequality to form the function f:
.
The rational function f is discontinuous at , and for ( and
we call partition numbers). The partition numbers 2 and -1 determine three open intervals:
, , and . The function f is continuous and nonzero on each of these
intervals. From Theorem 2, we know that does not change sign on any of these intervals.
We can find the sign of on each of the intervals by selecting a test number in each interval
and evaluating at that number. The sing of at each test number is the same as the sign
of over the interval containing that test number. Using this information, we can construct a
sign chart for . And from the sign chart we can easily write the solution of the given
nonlinear inequality: for .

In general, given a function f, a partition number is a value of x such that f is


discontinuous at x or . Partition numbers determine open intervals in which
does not change sign. By using a test number from each interval, we can construct a sign chart
for on the real-number line. It is then easy to solve the inequality or .

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