When teaching someone how to prove a function is uniformly continuous, using epsilon/delta, which example...

What are the advantages of using `make` for small projects?

Why are the books in the Game of Thrones citadel library shelved spine inwards?

Word or phrase for showing great skill at something without formal training in it

Are there any outlying considerations if I treat donning a shield as an object interaction during the first round of combat?

How would one buy a used TIE Fighter or X-Wing?

What's the most convenient time of year in the USA to end the world?

What makes the Forgotten Realms "forgotten"?

Can we use the stored gravitational potential energy of a building to produce power?

Eww, those bytes are gross

How did the original light saber work?

If I delete my router's history can my ISP still provide it to my parents?

Why zero tolerance on nudity in space?

Do authors have to be politically correct in article-writing?

Dilemma of explaining to interviewer that he is the reason for declining second interview

Using loops to create tables

Does Windows 10's telemetry include sending *.doc files if Word crashed?

Avoiding morning and evening handshakes

Why did the villain in the first Men in Black movie care about Earth's Cockroaches?

What to do when being responsible for data protection in your lab, yet advice is ignored?

1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1

Program that converts a number to a letter of the alphabet

Closed form for these polynomials?

Number of FLOP (Floating Point Operations) for exponentiation

When teaching someone how to prove a function is uniformly continuous, using epsilon/delta, which example would be among the simplest?



When teaching someone how to prove a function is uniformly continuous, using epsilon/delta, which example would be among the simplest?


How much memorization should be required in a first-semester calculus course?Good ways of explaining the idea of epsilon-delta limits to bio & chem majors?The 'epsilon-delta' method for teaching limitsWhat are non-math majors supposed to get out of an undergraduate calculus class?Looking for realistic applications of the average and instantaneous rate of changeWhat is a better way to explain these claims about limit are not true in general?Which examples should we mention when teaching the concept of derivatives?Would teaching nonstandard calculus in an introduction calculus course make it easier to learn?













1












$begingroup$


I've taught how to use $epsilon, delta$ to prove that a function is continuous at a point, and I'm about to teach how to prove that a function is continuous over an open interval.



Usually, the examples I can think of that seem easy enough on the outside, require some algebraic trickery that might make it seem more daunting than it needs to be, and may inspire a "damn, this is too difficult" mentality.



Are there some examples of functions that are almost painfully straightforward to give a soft introduction to these, that I may increase the difficulty more smoothly?










share|improve this question









$endgroup$








  • 2




    $begingroup$
    A linear function, perhaps?
    $endgroup$
    – paw88789
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    @paw88789 - Definitely a good idea, yeah. Easy, quick, and no long lines of algebra that draw attention away from the end goal. Thanks for the tip! Any natural steps beyond that?
    $endgroup$
    – Alec
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    $|sin x - sin y| le |x-y|$ makes sine a good candidate.
    $endgroup$
    – user3813
    8 mins ago
















1












$begingroup$


I've taught how to use $epsilon, delta$ to prove that a function is continuous at a point, and I'm about to teach how to prove that a function is continuous over an open interval.



Usually, the examples I can think of that seem easy enough on the outside, require some algebraic trickery that might make it seem more daunting than it needs to be, and may inspire a "damn, this is too difficult" mentality.



Are there some examples of functions that are almost painfully straightforward to give a soft introduction to these, that I may increase the difficulty more smoothly?










share|improve this question









$endgroup$








  • 2




    $begingroup$
    A linear function, perhaps?
    $endgroup$
    – paw88789
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    @paw88789 - Definitely a good idea, yeah. Easy, quick, and no long lines of algebra that draw attention away from the end goal. Thanks for the tip! Any natural steps beyond that?
    $endgroup$
    – Alec
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    $|sin x - sin y| le |x-y|$ makes sine a good candidate.
    $endgroup$
    – user3813
    8 mins ago














1












1








1





$begingroup$


I've taught how to use $epsilon, delta$ to prove that a function is continuous at a point, and I'm about to teach how to prove that a function is continuous over an open interval.



Usually, the examples I can think of that seem easy enough on the outside, require some algebraic trickery that might make it seem more daunting than it needs to be, and may inspire a "damn, this is too difficult" mentality.



Are there some examples of functions that are almost painfully straightforward to give a soft introduction to these, that I may increase the difficulty more smoothly?










share|improve this question









$endgroup$




I've taught how to use $epsilon, delta$ to prove that a function is continuous at a point, and I'm about to teach how to prove that a function is continuous over an open interval.



Usually, the examples I can think of that seem easy enough on the outside, require some algebraic trickery that might make it seem more daunting than it needs to be, and may inspire a "damn, this is too difficult" mentality.



Are there some examples of functions that are almost painfully straightforward to give a soft introduction to these, that I may increase the difficulty more smoothly?







calculus limits






share|improve this question













share|improve this question











share|improve this question




share|improve this question










asked 4 hours ago









AlecAlec

609310




609310








  • 2




    $begingroup$
    A linear function, perhaps?
    $endgroup$
    – paw88789
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    @paw88789 - Definitely a good idea, yeah. Easy, quick, and no long lines of algebra that draw attention away from the end goal. Thanks for the tip! Any natural steps beyond that?
    $endgroup$
    – Alec
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    $|sin x - sin y| le |x-y|$ makes sine a good candidate.
    $endgroup$
    – user3813
    8 mins ago














  • 2




    $begingroup$
    A linear function, perhaps?
    $endgroup$
    – paw88789
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    @paw88789 - Definitely a good idea, yeah. Easy, quick, and no long lines of algebra that draw attention away from the end goal. Thanks for the tip! Any natural steps beyond that?
    $endgroup$
    – Alec
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    $|sin x - sin y| le |x-y|$ makes sine a good candidate.
    $endgroup$
    – user3813
    8 mins ago








2




2




$begingroup$
A linear function, perhaps?
$endgroup$
– paw88789
4 hours ago




$begingroup$
A linear function, perhaps?
$endgroup$
– paw88789
4 hours ago












$begingroup$
@paw88789 - Definitely a good idea, yeah. Easy, quick, and no long lines of algebra that draw attention away from the end goal. Thanks for the tip! Any natural steps beyond that?
$endgroup$
– Alec
4 hours ago




$begingroup$
@paw88789 - Definitely a good idea, yeah. Easy, quick, and no long lines of algebra that draw attention away from the end goal. Thanks for the tip! Any natural steps beyond that?
$endgroup$
– Alec
4 hours ago












$begingroup$
$|sin x - sin y| le |x-y|$ makes sine a good candidate.
$endgroup$
– user3813
8 mins ago




$begingroup$
$|sin x - sin y| le |x-y|$ makes sine a good candidate.
$endgroup$
– user3813
8 mins ago










1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes


















2












$begingroup$

I think this cannot be understood without a contrasting example where it fails.
So perhaps, in addition to a linear function as suggested by @paw88789, consider $f(x) = frac{1}{x}$ over the open interval $(0,1)$.
It is continuous over that interval, but not uniformly continuous.
Fix an $epsilon > 0$; then for any $delta > 0$ one can
arrange the difference in $f$-values to exceed $epsilon$ by getting
close enough to $x=0$.






share|improve this answer









$endgroup$













    Your Answer





    StackExchange.ifUsing("editor", function () {
    return StackExchange.using("mathjaxEditing", function () {
    StackExchange.MarkdownEditor.creationCallbacks.add(function (editor, postfix) {
    StackExchange.mathjaxEditing.prepareWmdForMathJax(editor, postfix, [["$", "$"], ["\\(","\\)"]]);
    });
    });
    }, "mathjax-editing");

    StackExchange.ready(function() {
    var channelOptions = {
    tags: "".split(" "),
    id: "548"
    };
    initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

    StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
    // Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
    if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
    StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
    createEditor();
    });
    }
    else {
    createEditor();
    }
    });

    function createEditor() {
    StackExchange.prepareEditor({
    heartbeatType: 'answer',
    autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
    convertImagesToLinks: false,
    noModals: true,
    showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
    reputationToPostImages: null,
    bindNavPrevention: true,
    postfix: "",
    imageUploader: {
    brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
    contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
    allowUrls: true
    },
    noCode: true, onDemand: true,
    discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
    ,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
    });


    }
    });














    draft saved

    draft discarded


















    StackExchange.ready(
    function () {
    StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fmatheducators.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f15310%2fwhen-teaching-someone-how-to-prove-a-function-is-uniformly-continuous-using-eps%23new-answer', 'question_page');
    }
    );

    Post as a guest















    Required, but never shown

























    1 Answer
    1






    active

    oldest

    votes








    1 Answer
    1






    active

    oldest

    votes









    active

    oldest

    votes






    active

    oldest

    votes









    2












    $begingroup$

    I think this cannot be understood without a contrasting example where it fails.
    So perhaps, in addition to a linear function as suggested by @paw88789, consider $f(x) = frac{1}{x}$ over the open interval $(0,1)$.
    It is continuous over that interval, but not uniformly continuous.
    Fix an $epsilon > 0$; then for any $delta > 0$ one can
    arrange the difference in $f$-values to exceed $epsilon$ by getting
    close enough to $x=0$.






    share|improve this answer









    $endgroup$


















      2












      $begingroup$

      I think this cannot be understood without a contrasting example where it fails.
      So perhaps, in addition to a linear function as suggested by @paw88789, consider $f(x) = frac{1}{x}$ over the open interval $(0,1)$.
      It is continuous over that interval, but not uniformly continuous.
      Fix an $epsilon > 0$; then for any $delta > 0$ one can
      arrange the difference in $f$-values to exceed $epsilon$ by getting
      close enough to $x=0$.






      share|improve this answer









      $endgroup$
















        2












        2








        2





        $begingroup$

        I think this cannot be understood without a contrasting example where it fails.
        So perhaps, in addition to a linear function as suggested by @paw88789, consider $f(x) = frac{1}{x}$ over the open interval $(0,1)$.
        It is continuous over that interval, but not uniformly continuous.
        Fix an $epsilon > 0$; then for any $delta > 0$ one can
        arrange the difference in $f$-values to exceed $epsilon$ by getting
        close enough to $x=0$.






        share|improve this answer









        $endgroup$



        I think this cannot be understood without a contrasting example where it fails.
        So perhaps, in addition to a linear function as suggested by @paw88789, consider $f(x) = frac{1}{x}$ over the open interval $(0,1)$.
        It is continuous over that interval, but not uniformly continuous.
        Fix an $epsilon > 0$; then for any $delta > 0$ one can
        arrange the difference in $f$-values to exceed $epsilon$ by getting
        close enough to $x=0$.







        share|improve this answer












        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer










        answered 2 hours ago









        Joseph O'RourkeJoseph O'Rourke

        15k33280




        15k33280






























            draft saved

            draft discarded




















































            Thanks for contributing an answer to Mathematics Educators Stack Exchange!


            • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

            But avoid



            • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

            • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


            Use MathJax to format equations. MathJax reference.


            To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




            draft saved


            draft discarded














            StackExchange.ready(
            function () {
            StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fmatheducators.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f15310%2fwhen-teaching-someone-how-to-prove-a-function-is-uniformly-continuous-using-eps%23new-answer', 'question_page');
            }
            );

            Post as a guest















            Required, but never shown





















































            Required, but never shown














            Required, but never shown












            Required, but never shown







            Required, but never shown

































            Required, but never shown














            Required, but never shown












            Required, but never shown







            Required, but never shown







            Popular posts from this blog

            Why not use the yoke to control yaw, as well as pitch and roll? Announcing the arrival of...

            Couldn't open a raw socket. Error: Permission denied (13) (nmap)Is it possible to run networking commands...

            VNC viewer RFB protocol error: bad desktop size 0x0I Cannot Type the Key 'd' (lowercase) in VNC Viewer...