Lec 13: Continuity and uniform continuity

MATH 147 Section 2, Fall Term 2022

I Uniform continuity
I Continuity on closed bounded intervals
I Sequential characterization of uniform continuity
I Continuity of combinations of functions

Key references: Text book sec 2.1.2–2.1.3

Uniform continuity

Definition 3
Let f be a function defined on a proper interval J. We say that f is uniformly continuous on J if for all ε > 0,
there exists δ > 0 such that |f (x) − f (y )| < ε for all x, y ∈ J satisfying |x − y | < δ.

For comparison, here is the definition of continuity at a point from last lecture:

Definition 1
Let f be a real-valued function defined on an open interval containing the point x0 . We say that f is continuous
at x0 if for all ε > 0, there exists δ > 0 such that |f (x) − f (x0 )| < ε for all x satisfying |x − x0 | < δ.
If f is defined on an open interval containing x0 and f is not continuous at x0 , then we say f is discontinuous at
x0 .

Question
What is the difference between saying that a function is continuous on an interval and uniformly continuous on
an interval?
Examples and exercises - Part 1
Which of the following functions are uniformly continuous on the given interval? Try to write out a rigorous
proof for the examples below that we only mention briefly.
1. f (x) = x 2 on a closed bounded interval [a, b] with a < b.
Is uniformly continuous. Proof: Let ε > 0. For any x and y in [a, b], we have that

|f (x) − f (y )| = |x 2 − y 2 | = |(x + y )(x − y )| = |x + y ||x − y |.

Note that |x + y | ≤ |x| + |y | ≤ 2 max{|x|, |y |} ≤ 2 max{|a|, |b|}.

Since a < b, either a 6= 0 or b 6= 0 (or both). Let M = 2 max{|a|, |b|} > 0 and define δ = ε/M. Note that
this δ does not depend on x or y . We now have that
ε
|f (x) − f (y )| ≤ M|x − y | < M · = ε whenever |x − y | < δ.
M

2. f (x) = x 2 on R. Is not uniformly continuous. Proof: Choose ε = 1 and consider an arbitrary candidate for
δ > 0 for the definition of uniform continuity.
For any x, h > 0, note that f (x + h) = (x + h)2 = x 2 + 2xh + h2 so

|f (x + h) − f (x)| = f (x + h) − f (x) = 2xh + h2 > 2xh.

Choosing x = 1/δ and h = δ/2 and defining y = x + h, we satisfy |y − x| = δ/2 < δ and
|f (y ) − f (x)| > 2 · δ1 · δ2 = 1 = ε, so f is not uniformly continuous.
Examples and exercises - Part 2

3. f (x) = 1/x on (0, 2]. Is not uniformly continuous.

4. f (x) = sin(1/x) on (0, 1]. Is not uniformly continuous. It oscillates between −1 and 1 with higher and
higher frequency as x approaches 0.
5. f (x) = x sin(1/x) on (0, 1]. Is uniformly continuous. Even though oscillations become rapid near x = 0,
the amplitude becomes small.
In fact, if you extend this function by defining f (0) = 0, then you can prove that f is continuous at x = 0
from the right.
Remark: Notice that things tend to go wrong when the interval is not closed or not bounded.
Continuity on closed bounded intervals

Theorem 3
Suppose the function f is continuous on a closed bounded interval [a, b]. Then f is uniformly continuous on
[a, b].

Proof.
We will just start the proof off and explain the idea of the remaining part.
To prove the contrapositive, suppose that f is not uniformly continuous. This means that there exists some
ε > 0 such that for all δ > 0, there are points ~ y in [a, b] satisfying |x − y | < δ and |f (x) − f (y )| ≥ ε.
x and ~
Define a sequence of δ values, δn = 1/n and choose points ~xn and ~
yn that satisfy the condition above. By
compactness of [a, b], there must be a subsequence {ynk }∞
k=1 that converges to a point L ∈ [a, b].

Complete this proof by showing that the subsequence {xnk }∞ k=1 (using the same nk as for the subsequence
{ynk }∞
k=1 ) also converges to L. Then show that f is not continuous at L using the sequential characterization of
continuity.
Sequential characterization of uniform continuity

Theorem 2
A function f is uniformly continuous on an interval J if and only if for all sequences {un } and {vn } in J
satisfying lim (un − vn ) = 0 we have lim [f (un ) − f (vn )] = 0.
n→∞ n→∞

Proof.
Forward direction is a straight-forward application of definitions.
Reverse direction: Show the contrapositive of this direction (i.e., the inverse of the forward direction). If f is
not uniformly continuous on J then there exist sequences {un } and {vn } in J satisfying lim (un − vn ) = 0 but
n→∞
it is not true that lim [f (un ) − f (vn )] = 0.
n→∞

Exercise
Use the sequential characterization of uniform continuity to show that f (x) = x 2 is not uniformly continuous on
R.
Continuity of combinations of functions

There are rules like the Arithmetic Rules for Limits that tell you that functions derived by performing certain
operations on other continuous functions are also continuous. The proofs are similar to the corresponding ones
for limits of sequences.

Theorem 4
Suppose the functions f and g are both continuous at x0 . Then
1. f + g is continuous at x0 .
2. fg is continuous at x0 .
3. f /g is continuous at x0 if g (x0 ) 6= 0.

Theorem 5
Suppose the function f is continuous at x0 and the function g is continuous at f (x0 ). Then g ◦ f is continuous
at x0 .

We assume that the function is defined on some necessary interval for the above results to make sense.
We can also extend the results above to one-sided continuity (being careful with compositions).
Basic examples of continuous functions

We can easily apply the definition of continuity to show that:

I constant functions and
I f (x) = x

are continuous on R.
Applying Theorem 4, it follows that
I polynomials and
I rational functions

are also continuous on R (except where the denominator of a rational function is 0).
We will assume that other common functions like
I exponential functions,
I logarithmic functions, and
I trigonometric functions

are continuous wherever you expect them to be. Proofs depend on how you define these functions.