Chapter : Appendixes F Proofs of Theorems
Book Title: Calculus: Early Transcendentals
Printed By: Arianna Conover (
[email protected])
© 2018 Cengage Learning, Cengage Learning
F Proofs of Theorems
In this appendix we present proofs of several theorems that are stated in the main body of
the text.
Section 2.3
Limit Laws
Suppose that is a constant and the limits
and
exist. Then
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Proof of Law 4
Let be given. We want to find such that
if
then
In order to get terms that contain and , we add and subtract
as follows:
We want to make each of these terms less than .
Since , there is a number such that
if
then
Also, there is a number such that if , then
and therefore
Since , there is a number such that
if
then
Let . If , then we have ,
, and , so we can combine the inequalities to obtain
This shows that .
Proof of Law 3
If we take in Law 4, we get
Proof of Law 2
Using Law 1 and Law 3 with , we have
Proof of Law 5
First let us show that
To do this we must show that, given , there exists such that
if
then
Observe that
We know that we can make the numerator small. But we also need to know that the
denominator is not small when is near . Since , there is a
number such that, whenever , we have
and therefore
This shows that
if
then
and so, for these values of ,
Also, there exists such that
if
then
Let . Then, for , we have
It follows that . Finally, using Law 4, we obtain
Theorem
If for all in an open interval that contains (except possibly at ) and
and
then .
Proof
We use the method of proof by contradiction. Suppose, if possible, that . Law
2 of limits says that
Therefore, for any , there exists such that
if
then
In particular, taking (noting that by hypothesis), we have a
number such that
if
then
Since for any number , we have
if
then
which simplifies to
if
then
But this contradicts . Thus the inequality must be false.
Therefore .
The Squeeze Theorem
If for all in an open interval that contains (except possibly at
) and
then
Proof
Let be given. Since , there is a number such that
if
then
that is,
if
then
Since , there is a number such that
if
then
that is,
if
then
Let . If , then and ,
so
In particular,
and so . Therefore .
Section 2.5
Theorem
If is a one-to-one continuous function defined on an interval , then its inverse
function is also continuous.
Proof
First we show that if is both one-to-one and continuous on , then it must be
either increasing or decreasing on . If it were neither increasing nor decreasing,
then there would exist numbers , , and in with such that
does not lie between and . There are two possibilities: either (1)
lies between and or (2) lies between and .
(Draw a picture.) In case (1) we apply the Intermediate Value Theorem to the
continuous function to get a number between and such that .
In case (2) the Intermediate Value Theorem gives a number between and
such that . In either case we have contradicted the fact that is one-
to-one.
Let us assume, for the sake of definiteness, that is increasing on . We take
any number in the domain of and we let ; that is, is the
number in such that . To show that is continuous at we take
any such that the interval is contained in the interval .
Since is increasing, it maps the numbers in the interval onto the
numbers in the interval and reverses the
correspondence. If we let denote the smaller of the numbers
and , then the interval is contained in the interval
and so is mapped into the interval by .
(See the arrow diagram in Figure 1.) We have therefore found a number such
that
if
then
Figure 1
This shows that and so is continuous at any number
in its domain.
Theorem
If is continuous at and , then
Proof
Let be given. We want to find a number such that
if
then
Since is continuous at , we have
and so there exists such that
if
then
Since , there exists such that
if
then
Combining these two statements, we see that whenever we have
, which implies that . Therefore we have proved
that .
Section 3.3
The proof of the following result was promised when we proved that .
Theorem
If , then .
Proof
Figure 2 shows a sector of a circle with center , central angle , and radius . Then
Figure 2
We approximate the arc by an inscribed polygon consisting of equal line
segments and we look at a typical segment . We extend the lines and to
meet in the points and . Then we draw as in Figure 2. Observe
that
and so . Therefore we have
If we add such inequalities, we get
where is the length of the inscribed polygon. Thus, by Theorem 2.3.2, we have
But the arc length is defined in Equation 8.1.1 as the limit of the lengths of inscribed
polygons, so
Section 4.3
Concavity Test
(a) If for all in , then the graph of is concave upward on .
(b) If for all in , then the graph of is concave downward on .
Proof of (a)
Let be any number in . We must show that the curve lies above the
tangent line at the point . The equation of this tangent is
So we must show that
whenever . (See Figure 3.)
Figure 3
First let us take the case where . Applying the Mean Value Theorem to on
the interval , we get a number , with , such that
Since on , we know from the Increasing/Decreasing Test that is
increasing on . Thus, since , we have
and so, multiplying this inequality by the positive number , we get
Now we add to both sides of this inequality:
But from Equation 1 we have . So this inequality
becomes
which is what we wanted to prove.
For the case where we have , but multiplication by the negative
number reverses the inequality, so we get (2) and (3) as before.
Section 4.4
In order to give the promised proof of l’Hospital’s Rule, we first need a generalization of the
Mean Value Theorem. The following theorem is named after another French mathematician,
Augustin-Louis Cauchy (1789–1857).
Cauchy’s Mean Value Theorem
Suppose that the functions and are continuous on and differentiable on
, and for all in . Then there is a number in such that
Note
See the biographical sketch of Cauchy.
Notice that if we take the special case in which , then and Theorem 1 is
just the ordinary Mean Value Theorem. Furthermore, Theorem 1 can be proved in a similar
manner. You can verify that all we have to do is change the function given by Equation
4.2.4 to the function
and apply Rolle’s Theorem as before.
L’Hospital’s Rule
Suppose and are differentiable and on an open interval that contains
(except possibly at ). Suppose that
and
or that
and
(In other words, we have an indeterminate form of type or .) Then
if the limit on the right side exists (or is or ).
Proof of L’Hospital’s Rule
We are assuming that and . Let
We must show that . Define
Then is continuous on since is continuous on and
Likewise, is continuous on . Let and . Then and are continuous
on and differentiable on and there (since and ).
Therefore, by Cauchy’s Mean Value Theorem, there is a number such that
and
Here we have used the fact that, by definition, and . Now, if we
let , then (since ), so
A similar argument shows that the left-hand limit is also . Therefore
This proves l’Hospital’s Rule for the case where is finite.
If is infinite, we let . Then as , so we have
Section 11.8
In order to prove Theorem 11.8.4, we first need the following results.
Theorem
1. If a power series converges when (where ), then it
converges whenever .
2. If a power series diverges when (where ), then it diverges
whenever .
Proof of 1
Suppose that converges. Then, by Theorem 11.2.6, we have
. According to Definition 11.1.2 with , there is a positive integer
such that whenever . Thus, for , we have
If , then , so is a convergent geometric series. Therefore,
by the Comparison Test, the series is convergent. Thus the series
is absolutely convergent and therefore convergent.
Proof of 2
Suppose that diverges. If is any number such that , then
cannot converge because, by part 1, the convergence of would imply the
convergence of . Therefore diverges whenever .
Theorem
For a power series there are only three possibilities:
1. The series converges only when .
2. The series converges for all .
3. There is a positive number such that the series converges if and
diverges if .
Proof
Suppose that neither case 1 nor case 2 is true. Then there are nonzero numbers
and such that converges for and diverges for . Therefore the
set is not empty. By the preceding theorem, the series
diverges if , so for all . This says that is an upper bound
for the set . Thus, by the Completeness Axiom (see Section 11.1), has a least
upper bound . If , then , so diverges. If , then is not
an upper bound for and so there exists such that . Since ,
converges, so by the preceding theorem converges.
Theorem
For a power series there are only three possibilities:
1. The series converges only when .
2. The series converges for all .
3. There is a positive number such that the series converges if
and diverges if .
Proof
If we make the change of variable , then the power series becomes
and we can apply the preceding theorem to this series. In case 3 we have
convergence for and divergence for . Thus we have convergence for
and divergence for .
Section 14.3
Clairaut’s Theorem
Suppose is defined on a disk that contains the point . If the functions
and are both continuous on , then .
Proof
For small values of , , consider the difference
Notice that if we let , then
By the Mean Value Theorem, there is a number between and such that
Applying the Mean Value Theorem again, this time to , we get a number
between and such that
Combining these equations, we obtain
If , then , so the continuity of at gives
Similarly, by writing
and using the Mean Value Theorem twice and the continuity of at , we
obtain
It follows that .
Section 14.4
Theorem
If the partial derivatives and exist near , and are continuous at , then
is differentiable at .
Proof
Let
According to (14.4.7), to prove that is differentiable at we have to show that
we can write in the form
where and as .
Referring to Figure 4, we write
Figure 4
Observe that the function of a single variable
is defined on the interval and . If we apply the
Mean Value Theorem to , we get
where is some number between and . In terms of , this equation
becomes
This gives us an expression for the first part of the right side of Equation 1. For the
second part we let . Then is a function of a single variable defined
on the interval and . A second application of the Mean
Value Theorem then gives
where is some number between and . In terms of , this becomes
We now substitute these expressions into Equation 1 and obtain
where
Since and as and since
and are continuous at , we see that and as
.
Therefore is differentiable at .
Chapter : Appendixes F Proofs of Theorems
Book Title: Calculus: Early Transcendentals
Printed By: Arianna Conover (
[email protected])
© 2018 Cengage Learning, Cengage Learning
© 2025 Cengage Learning Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this work may by reproduced or used in any form or by any means -
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