Riemann-integral and Stone-Weierstrauss Theorem

integrationreal-analysisweierstrass-approximation

Question:
Let ƒ be a continuous real-valued function on [0, 1].

Show that

$\lim_{n->\infty }\frac{\int_{0}^{1}x^nf(x)dx}{\int_{0}^{1}x^ndx} = f(1)$

My approach: I thought the denominator and the numerator are both differentiable in the given interval, so that I could use the L'Hospital's Theorem to prove this statement, by then making the question very straightforward.

But how can I use the Stone-Weierstrauss Theorem to prove this statement? I don't see any possible relation of solving this problem with the Stone-Weierstrauss Theorem.

Best Answer

A trivial verification shows that the result is true when $f(x)=cx^{k}$ for some non-negative integer $k$ and $c$ is a constant. Hence it holds when $f$ is a polynomial. Now choose a polynomial $p$ such that $|f(x)-p(x)| <\epsilon$ for all $x$ (which is possible by Weierstrass Approximation Theorem). Note that $|\frac {\int x^{n}f(x)} {\int x^{n}dx}-\frac {\int x^{n}p(x)} {\int x^{n}dx}|<\epsilon$. Can you finish?

Stone-Weierstrass Theorem is much stronger than Weierstrass Approximation Theorem. For this problem you only need Weierstrass Approximation Theorem.

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