Discrete math – The ceiling of a real number x, denoted by$ ⌈𝑥⌉$, is the unique integer that satisfies the inequality

discrete mathematicsinequality

I have a discrete math question below with a solution written by my teacher. I'm really lost as to what answers I'm trying to find exactly. I don't understand how the teacher got 1 and -1 for the first two values, and I also don't understand how and why the last line turns $⌈(𝟔.𝟑 − ⌈𝟏.𝟕⌉)⌉$ into $⌈𝟔.𝟑 − 𝟐⌉ = ⌈𝟒.𝟑⌉ = 𝟓$

I would appreciate it if someone could walk me through the solution.

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Best Answer

A drawing of the function $f(x)=\lceil x\rceil$ can help:

Ceiling

Taking for granted what the drawing says it's very easy to check any of the substitutions (e.g. clearly $\lceil 2.4\rceil=\lceil 2.15\rceil=\lceil 2.836\rceil=3$ simply reading it)

You can too check the truth of the substitutions right into the inequalities. E. g. $\lceil1.7\rceil=2$ satisfies $2-1<1.7\leq2$

Finally, the very name helps: for a number some integer is its ceiling.