Saturday, 29 June 2013

calculus - Prove that f(x) can have any value between A and B



I need to prove the following statement:
Let f be a bounded and continuous function in the interval (a,b). if lim and \lim_{x\to b-}f(x)=B and A\neq B then f can get any value between and A and B in the interval (a,b).



What I did:
Let $ g(x) =
\begin{cases}
f(x), & \text{$aA, & \text{x=a} \\

B, & \text{x=b} \\
\end{cases} . We can see that g(x) is a continuous function in the the interval [a,b]. Therefore, I can use the Intermediate value theorem to prove that for any value between A and B, there exists a

My Questions:



1)Can i define a function that is divided to 3 cases?



2)I didn't use the fact that f(x) is bounded, and that seems weird. what is wrong with my proof?




3) I am sure there must be a better way to prove it because the next statement i need to prove the same just for A=\infty and B=-\infty(f(x) isn't bounded) and my trick won't work there, that's why I have no idea how to prove it.


Answer



1) Yes, you can, if A and B are finite. You have just extended f to a continuous function on [a,b]



2) You have implicitly used it in assuming that A and B are finite. In fact, |A|, |B|<+\infty if and only if f is bounded (why?)



3) If A=+\infty, B = -\infty, then for any real \alpha\in \mathbb{R}, there is a'>a, b'< such that f(a') < \alpha < f(b'). So you apply intermediate value theorem to [a',b']


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