[Math] continuity and uniform continuty of $1/x$

analysiscontinuityreal-analysisuniform-continuity

I was reviewing lecture notes from a term i just finished, and my lecturer leaves an example that illustrates the difference between continuity and uniform continuity but i'm not sure i understand it.

We are told that on closed intervals uniform continuity = continuity and on open intervals uniform continuity is strong than continuity.
i.e. Let $f : (0,1] \to [1,\infty) $. $ f $ is continuous on $(0,1]$ but not uniformly continuous. Here is my proof, theres bits that are not correct and i'd like to clear up the confusion.

So we know that f is continuous if $\exists c \in (0,1]$ s.t $\forall \epsilon > 0 \exists \delta>0$ s.t if $|x-c| < \delta \Rightarrow |f(x) – f(c)| < \epsilon $.
i.e. $|x-y| < \delta \Rightarrow |1/x – 1/c| = |\frac{x-c}{xc}| < \epsilon$

$|\frac{x-c}{xc}| < |\frac{\delta}{xc}|$ but from here do i set epsilon to $|\frac{\delta}{xc}|$ ? But then epsilon depends on x? Anyway if i could clean this up then i would be able to show its continuous, but i cant quite manage the last step. After i do this, how do i show its not uniformly continuous?

Best Answer

Setting $\varepsilon$ to something doesn't make sense. You need to take $\varepsilon$ to be given, and find a value of $\delta$ that's small enough.

Continuity should not say $\exists c\in(0,1]$ etc., where $c$ is in the role you put it in. Rather, continuity at the point $c$ should be defined by what comes after that.

Uniform continuity says $$ \forall\varepsilon>0\ \exists\delta>0\ \forall x\in(0,1]\ \forall y\in(0,1]\ \left(\text{if }|x-y|<\delta\text{ then }\left|\frac1x-\frac1y\right|<\varepsilon\right). $$

Lack of uniform continuity is the negation of that: $$ \text{Not }\forall\varepsilon>0\ \exists\delta>0\ \forall x\in(0,1]\ \forall y\in(0,1]\ \left(\text{if }|x-y|<\delta\text{ then }\left|\frac1x-\frac1y\right|<\varepsilon\right). \tag 1 $$

The way to negate $\forall\varepsilon>0\ \cdots\cdots$ to by a de-Morganesque law that says $\left(\text{not }\forall\varepsilon>0\ \cdots\cdots\right)$ is the same as $(\exists\varepsilon>0\ \text{not }\cdots\cdots)$, and similarly when "not" moves past $\forall$, then that transforms to $\exists$. So $(1)$ becomes $$ \exists\varepsilon>0\text{ not }\exists\delta>0\ \forall x\in(0,1]\ \forall y\in(0,1]\ \left(\text{if }|x-y|<\delta\text{ then }\left|\frac1x-\frac1y\right|<\varepsilon\right) \tag 2 $$ and that becomes $$ \exists\varepsilon>0\ \forall\delta>0\text{ not }\forall x\in(0,1]\ \forall y\in(0,1]\ \left(\text{if }|x-y|<\delta\text{ then }\left|\frac1x-\frac1y\right|<\varepsilon\right) \tag 3 $$ and that becomes $$ \exists\varepsilon>0\ \forall\delta>0\ \exists x\in(0,1]\text{ not } \forall y\in(0,1]\ \left(\text{if }|x-y|<\delta\text{ then }\left|\frac1x-\frac1y\right|<\varepsilon\right) \tag 4 $$ and that becomes $$ \exists\varepsilon>0\ \forall\delta>0\ \exists x\in(0,1]\ \exists y\in(0,1]\text{ not } \left(\text{if }|x-y|<\delta\text{ then }\left|\frac1x-\frac1y\right|<\varepsilon\right) \tag 5 $$ and that becomes $$ \exists\varepsilon>0\ \forall\delta>0\ \exists x\in(0,1]\ \exists y\in(0,1] \left(|x-y|<\delta\text{ and not }\left|\frac1x-\frac1y\right|<\varepsilon\right) \tag 6 $$ and finally that becomes $$ \exists\varepsilon>0\ \forall\delta>0\ \exists x\in(0,1]\ \exists y\in(0,1] \left(|x-y|<\delta\text{ and }\left|\frac1x-\frac1y\right|\ge\varepsilon\right). \tag 7 $$

To show that such a value of $\varepsilon$ exists, it is enough to show that $\varepsilon=1$ will serve. You need to find $x$ and $y$ closer to each other than $\delta$ but having reciprocals differing by more than $1$. It is enough to make both $x$ and $y$ smaller than $\delta$ and then exploit the fact that there's a vertical asymptote at $0$ to make $x$ and $y$ far apart, by pushing one of them closer to $0$.

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