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Calculus Lecture1

The document discusses the definition and properties of sequences and their convergence, including rigorous definitions and proofs related to limits. It covers topics such as the uniqueness of limits, boundedness of convergent sequences, and the algebra of limits under certain conditions. Additionally, it poses questions about the behavior of sequences when terms are altered and the implications of convergence for sequences of integers.

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Ritobrato Das
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20 views2 pages

Calculus Lecture1

The document discusses the definition and properties of sequences and their convergence, including rigorous definitions and proofs related to limits. It covers topics such as the uniqueness of limits, boundedness of convergent sequences, and the algebra of limits under certain conditions. Additionally, it poses questions about the behavior of sequences when terms are altered and the implications of convergence for sequences of integers.

Uploaded by

Ritobrato Das
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Lecture 1.

(Notation: xn ! x is same as lim xn = x.


n!1
More rigorously, for all " > 0, there exists some N 2 N such that
for all n N, it holds that |xn x| < ".)

1. What is the negation of the above definition, that is, what does it mean when we say xn does not
converge to x?
1 n 1
2. Show, using rigorous " N definition, that lim = 0 and lim = .
n!1 n2 n!1 2n + 5 2
3. (a) Suppose that you have a sequence {xn } in which every term is non-negative, that is, xn 0
for all n 1. Show that if xn converges, the limit is also non-negative. Would your answer
change if only the first thousand terms were negative?
(b) Suppose that you have a sequence {xn } such that xn a for some real number a. Show that
if xn converges, then the limit is a. (Hint: use part (a))
(c) Suppose that there are two convergent sequences {xn } and {yn } with xn ! x, yn ! y and
xn yn for every n 1. (We often write: the sequence xn dominates yn .) Show that x y.
(Hint: use (a))
p p
4. Show that if xn ! x where xn and x are both non-negative, then xn ! x. (We will later
p
rephrase this as · is a continuous function.)

5. (a) Show that if xn ! x, then x2n ! x2 . (You can use the definition but I am expecting a cleverer
solution.)
(b) Is the converse of part (a) true?
(c) Show that part (a) holds for every positive integral power, i.e., xkn ! xk for all k 2 N whenever
xn ! x.
(d) Using part (c), prove that for every polynomial P with real coefficients, xn ! x implies that
P (xn ) ! P (x).

6. Suppose that xn is a convergent sequence but yn is not. Can it happen that (xn yn ) converges?

7. Suppose that you have a convergence sequence. Can you change it to a divergent sequences by
fudging (adding, deleting or changing) finitely many terms? Can you make a divergent sequence
convergent by changing finitely many terms?

8. What can you say about a sequence of integers that converges?

So, before we begin with the second lecture, you know what a sequence means, what it means for it to
converge (or not converge) to a point, how we can define an algebra on their limits and how convergence
implies boundedness. You also know that the limit of a non-negative sequence is non-negative and that
limit of a sequence is preserved by certain functions (under certain conditions), such as polynomials.
Summary.

1. A sequence is a map from N to some set X. (Typically, we deal with real sequences and set
X = R.) This is just a complicated way of saying that a sequence is an enumerated infinite set
that looks like {a1 , a2 , a3 , . . . }. Note that it is not a set and is always infinite. We say that a
sequence {an } is bounded if there exists M > 0 such that |an |  M for every n 1. We say that
it is monotone increasing (resp. decreasing) if an+1 an (resp. an+1  an ) for every n 1. For
example, {tan(1/n)}n 1 is both bounded and monotone (decreasing) but {tan n}n 1 is monotone
increasing and unbounded.

2. We say that a sequence xn converges to x i↵ given any " > 0, there exists some N 2 N such that
for all n N, |xn x| < " () xn 2 (x ", x + "). All this means is that the terms of the
sequence eventually get arbitrarily close to the point x. Here is an alternate phrasing: the positive
distance between xn ’s and x becomes arbitrarily small for all sufficiently large n. Do not ignore
any of the quantifiers in the preceding sentences: ‘eventually’, ‘sufficiently’ and ‘arbitrarily’. Do
not proceed unless you fully understand what role each component plays in the above definition
and can flow freely between alternate phrasings of the same.

3. (a) Limit of a sequence, if it exists, is unique.


(Proof: Let, if possible, l1 6= l2 be two distinct limits of the same sequence (xn ). Set " =
|l1 l2 |/2. The intervals (l1 ", l1 + ") and (l2 ", l2 + ") are disjoint and hence, cannot both
contain all but finitely many terms of the same sequence.)
(b) A convergent sequence is necessarily bounded.
(Proof: Set " = 1. It doesn’t matter what you choose. For all n N (for some large N ), xn is
in (` 1, ` + 1) where ` is the assumed limit. So, the terms after N are already bounded. For
all terms outside this interval, choose M to be their maximum. Since there are only finitely
many of them outside the interval, maximum makes sense. Between ` + 1 and M, the larger
quantity is a bound that works uniformly for all terms.)
(c) As long as limits exist, we can define an algebra on them. That is, if lim xn = x and
n!1
lim yn = y, then,
n!1
(i) lim cxn = cx for any real number c.
n!1
(ii) lim (xn + yn ) = lim xn + lim yn .
n!1
⇣ n!1 ⌘ ⇣ n!1 ⌘
(iii) lim (xn yn ) = lim xn lim yn .
n!1 n!1 n!1
Exercise: Prove the above using the definition.

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