Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2014/ia/paper-1/12f/a/solution

For a bounded real function on , take a partition with nodes . Its lower Darboux sum and upper Darboux sum are
The function is Riemann integrable when ; their common value is its Riemann integral. Equivalently, for every some partition has . Indeed a common refinement of nearly extremizing upper and lower partitions proves necessity, while arbitrarily small gaps force equality of the two integrals. This is the Riemann integrability criterion.
A continuous function on a compact interval is bounded and uniformly continuous. Choose a mesh small enough that its oscillation on each subinterval is less than . Then ; using first makes the desired inequality strict. Thus every continuous function on is Riemann integrable.

New to topics? Read the docs here!