Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2016/ia/paper-1/12f/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 ia Paper 1 12F Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
The stated bound is Lipschitz continuity with constant . For every and every , taking ensures whenever . The same works at every point, so is both continuous and uniformly continuous.
For an integer , partition into equal intervals and define a step functionAt the remaining endpoint set , so the final interval may be taken closed on the right. The Lipschitz bound givesChoosing proves the requested uniform step approximation on a compact interval:A sufficiently fine partition gives a piecewise constant approximation uniformly over the whole interval.
The continuous function and every finite step function are Riemann integrable. Put . Integrating each constant piece explicitly givesSince the sine differences have absolute value at most , the triangle inequality and uniform approximation giveTo prove convergence, fix and first choose with . With this held fixed, the finite number is independent of , so the second term is also less than for sufficiently large . ThereforeFirst make the approximation error small, then let the oscillation frequency grow. This is the step-function proof of the Riemann-Lebesgue lemma; it does not require assuming that a Lipschitz function has an everywhere-defined derivative.
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