Lecture 4: Continuity

Today: Continuity, Discontinuities, Intermediate Value Theorem

Exercise 1 (Warm-Up: A Trig Limit). It can be shown geometrically that, for θ near 0,
then
sin(θ)
cos(θ) < < 1.
θ
We can compute easily that

lim cos(θ) = cos(0) = 1 and lim 1 = 1.

θ→0 θ→0

Therefore we may apply the Squeeze Theorem and conclude that

sin(θ)
lim = 1.
θ→0 θ
This is a very important limit, and we will come back to it later when we talk about trigono-
metric functions in more depth.
If a function f allows us to use direct substitution in order to compute its limit, then the
function is very nice. Let’s give such functions a name.
Definition 2. Say that f (x) is continuous at a number a if lim f (x) = f (a). We say
x→a
that a function f is continuous if it is continuous at every number in its domain.
For a function f (x) to be continuous at some particular number a, three things must
actually be true:

(i) f (a) is defined, (ii) lim f (x) exists, and (iii) lim f (x) = f (a).
x→a x→a

Informally, a function is continuous if we can draw the graph of the function without
removing our pen from the paper.
There are several different types of discontinuities; let’s give names to a few.

f (x)
x
A B C D E F

In the above figure, f (x) is continuous at x = A (indeed, it is continuous at every

number except for B, C, D, E, and F ). This graph illustrates several different types of
discontinuities.

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 B: f (x) is discontinuous at B because f (B) is not defined there, breaking part (i) of the
definition of continuity. This is an example of a removable discontinuity, because we
could make f continuous at B by simply defining f (B) properly.

C: f (x) is discontinuous at C because, although f (C) is defined and lim f (x) exists,
x→C
these quantities are not equal to one another. This breaks part (iii) of the definition
of continuity. This is also a removable discontinuity.

D: f (x) is discontinuous at D because lim f (x) does not exist (breaking part (ii) of the
x→D
definition), even though both the right- and left-hand limits of f (x) exist at D. This
is called a jump discontinuity, since the graph of f (x) ‘jumps’ at D.

E: f (x) is discontinuous at E because lim f (x) does not exist. Because the one-sided
x→E
limits do exist, this is another jump discontinuity.

F: f (x) is discontinuous at F because at least one of the one-sided limits of f (x) at F

does not exist (again breaking part (ii) of the definition). Because at least one of the
one-sided limits does not exist, this is called an infinite discontinuity.

We can say a little bit more about the behavior of f (x) near D. Because lim+ f (x) =
x→D
f (D), we say that f (x) is continuous from the right at x = D. We can similarly define
what it means for a function to be continuous from the left.
If a function f is defined near a, then f (x) is continuous at a number a if it is both
continuous from the left at a and continuous from the right at a.
Now that we have the notion of continuity, we can restate a few of our previous facts.
Fact 3. If f (x) is a polynomial, rational function, trigonometric function, root function1 ,
exponential function, or logarithmic function, then f (x) is continuous at every point in its
domain.
In general, we can often tell whether a complicated function is continuous by seeing that
it is built out of simpler continuous functions. In particular, we have
Fact 4. If f (x) and g(x) are both continuous at a, then so are f (x) + g(x), f (x) − g(x),
(x)
f (x)g(x), fg(x) (provided g(a) = 0), and (f (x))n for any positive power n.
As it turns out, function composition also plays nicely with continuity:
Fact 5. If f (x) is continuous at the number x = a, and if g(x) is continuous at the number
x = f (a), then g ◦ f (x) = g(f (x)) is continuous at x = a.

Example 16.
lim x2 sin (2x − 7) = 4 sin(−3).
x→2    
poly trig. poly
  
composition
  
product
1
See the Example 17 for a short discussion of what we mean here.

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Example 17. Let’s analyze the continuity of the following piecewise function f :
√
4 − x2 if − 2 ≤ x ≤ 1
f (x) =
2x − 3 if 1 < x.

Because root functions and polynomials are continuous (and so are the composition
of continuous functions), we know right away that f (x) is continuous at every point in
(−2, 1) ∪ (1, +∞). We therefore only need to check the points a = −2 and a = 1.
Since the domain does not extend past a = −2, the only option  that we have here is
continuity from the right. To check this, first note that f (−2) = 4 − (−2)2 = 0, and that
√ 
lim + f (x) = lim + 4 − x2 = 4 − (−2)2 = 0,
x→−2 x→−2

and therefore f (x) is indeed continuous from the right2 at −2.

For a = 1, we check the full definition of continuity. Since f (x) is defined piece-wise
around 1, we check the one-sided limits:
√ √ √ √
lim+ f (x) = lim+ 2x − 3 = −1, lim− f (x) = lim− 4 − x2 = 3, f (1) = 4 − 12 = 3.
x→1 x→1 x→1 x→1

Because lim f (x) does not exist (even though each one-sided limit exists!), f (x) has a jump
x→1
continuity at a = 1. However, because lim− f (x) = f (1), we can still say that f (x) is
x→1
continuous from the left at a = 1.
In summary, f (x) is continuous on (−2, 1) ∪ (1, +∞), has a jump discontinuity at x = 1,
is continuous from the left at x = 1, and is continuous from the right at x = 4.

We now move on to perhaps the most mathematically important fact in this course,
which provides the theoretical foundation on which nearly all of calculus is built.

Theorem 4 (Intermediate Value Theorem). If f (x) is continuous on the closed interval

[a, b], if f (a) = f (b), and if N is any number between f (a) and f (b), then there is some
number c in the interval (a, b) such that f (c) = N .

This theorem says that, if a continuous function on a closed interval begins and ends
on opposite sides of a horizontal line, then at some point in the interval the graph of the
functions must actually cross that horizontal line. It may cross multiple times, but the
important thing is that is does cross at least once. This result is intuitively obvious, given
our understanding of ‘continuous’. Here is a picture to illustrate:
2
Because the domain of f does not extend past −2, some people (including the author of your book)
simply say that f is continuous at −2 because it is continuous from the right there. We will not do this in
class, but you should be aware of this as you work through your homework.

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 f (b)
N

f (a)
a c b

As an application of this theorem, we can prove that some equations have solutions,
even if we can’t explicitly find them! This is certainly unlike anything that one sees in
Pre-Calculus.

Example 18. Let’s show that the polynomial 3x3 − 2x − 3 has a root between 1 and 2.
To do this, note that f (x) = 3x3 − 2x − 3 is a continuous function (and is therefore
continuous on the interval [1, 2]), that f (1) = −2 and f (2) = 17, and that 0 is between −2
and 17. Therefore, we may apply the Intermediate Value Theorem (with f (x) = 3x3 −2x−3,
a = 1, b = 2, and N = 0) to see that there exists some number c between 1 and 2 such that
f (c) = 0. But then c satisfies 3c3 − 2c − 3 = 0, as desired.
Keep in mind that we might not know how to find an explicit formula for this root; we
only know that the root exists.

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