I'm currently working on the very well written book Understanding Analysis, by Stephen Abbott.
But I found a proof that looks wrong, I think that it going the wrong way (showing that A ⟹ B while it should demonstrate that B⟹A).
Here is the theorem :
A function f : A → R, fails to be uniformly continuous if there exists a particular ϵ0 and two sequences (xn) and (yn) such that :
lim(|xn−yn|)=0 and |f(xn)−f(yn)|≥ϵ0.
Here is the proof :
Negating the definition of uniform continuity gives the following:
A function f:A→R fails to be uniformly continuous on A if there exists ε0>0 such that for all δ>0 we can find two points x and y satisfying |x−y|<δ but with |f(x)−f(y)|≥ϵ0.
The fact that no δ “works” means that if we were to try δ=1, we would be able to find points x1 and y1 where |x1−y1|<1 but |f(x1)−f(y1)|≥ε0.
In a similar way, if we try δ=1/n where n∈N, it follows that there exist points xn and yn with |xn−yn|<1/n but where |f(xn)−f(yn)|≥ϵ0. The sequences (xn) and (yn) are precisely the ones described in theorem.
Comment :
I think that the proof demonstrated that :
f not uniformly continuous ⟹ (xn) and (yn) exist.
While it should have been the other way around.
Do you agree that the proof is wrong ?
Answer
Note that "f:A→R is uniformly continuous" is in fact by definition equivalent to
∀ϵ>0:∃δ>0:∀x,y:(|x−y|<δ→|f(x)−f(y)|<ϵ)
Hence the negation
∃ϵ>0:∀δ>0:∃x,y:(|x−y|<δ∧|f(x)−f(y)|≥ϵ)
is also equivalent to the negation "f:A→R fails to be uniformly continuous".
So on the one hand you may have tripped over the custom that "if" in a definition is conceptually an "iff" and that on the other hand the argument does indeed show something stronger than "if", namely "iff".
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