 Nested intervals

A sequence of nested intervals keeps every new enclosure inside the previous one:Each step adds a restriction without discarding an earlier restriction. This is useful when an exact real number is described by increasingly precise bounds rather than by a finite decimal expansion. The bisection method, for instance, produces nested intervals that keep enclosing a zero of a function.

For a simple example, the closed intervals $I_n=[1-1/n,1+1/n]$ are nested and all contain $1$. Their lengths $2/n$ tend to zero, so the nested interval theorem leaves exactly that point. The family $J_n=[1-1/n,2+1/n]$ is also nested, but its intersection is the whole closed interval $[1,2]$. Nesting alone does not force uniqueness.

The open intervals $K_n=(0,1/n)$ illustrate a different possibility. Every finite collection has a nonempty intersection, but the intersection of all of them is empty: any positive candidate eventually exceeds $1/n$, and zero is excluded from every member. Each finite row in the diagram contains points; the full infinite family need not.