English

Fun with "Analysis I": basic theorems in calculus revisited

History and Overview 2019-01-31 v8 Classical Analysis and ODEs Functional Analysis

Abstract

This note tries to show that a re-examination of a first course in analysis, using the more sophisticated tools and approaches obtained in later stages, can be a real fun for experts, advanced students, etc. We start by going to the extreme, namely we present two proofs of the Extreme Value Theorem: "the programmer proof" that suggests a method (which is practical in down-to-earth settings) to approximate, to any required precision, the extreme values of the given function in a metric space setting, and an abstract space proof ("the level-set proof") for semicontinuous functions defined on compact topological spaces. Next, in the intermediate part, we consider the Intermediate Value Theorem, generalize it to a wide class of discontinuous functions, and re-examine the meaning of the intermediate value property. The trek reaches the final frontier when we discuss the Uniform Continuity Theorem, generalize it, re-examine the meaning of uniform continuity, and find the optimal delta of the given epsilon. Have fun!

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0709.4492,
  title  = {Fun with "Analysis I": basic theorems in calculus revisited},
  author = {Daniel Reem},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0709.4492},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

Better presentation, the paper was shortened, shorter title and abstract, correction of a few minor inaccuracies, slight change to the list of references, added an appendix (regarding Example 14 and Example 15), added thanks

R2 v1 2026-06-21T09:23:11.705Z