 Solution

The intermediate value theorem states that if $f:[a,b]\to \mathbb{R}$ is continuous and $y$ lies between $f(a)$ and $f(b)$, then some $c\in [a,b]$ satisfies $f(c)=y$.

Assume $f(a)<y<f(b)$ and letThe least-upper-bound property makes $c$ well defined. If $f(c)<y$, continuity gives points immediately to the right of $c$ in $S$, contradicting that $c$ is an upper bound. If $f(c)>y$, continuity gives a left neighborhood of $c$ disjoint from $S$, contradicting the definition of the supremum. Thus $f(c)=y$. The endpoint and reversed-order cases follow directly or by replacing $f$ with $-f$.

The mean value theorem states that if $g$ is continuous on $[\alpha ,\beta ]$ and differentiable on $(\alpha ,\beta )$, then some $c\in (\alpha ,\beta )$ satisfiesFor the functions in the question, the definition of the derivative makes $h$ continuous at $a$ and $f$ continuous at $b$, withIf the middle secant slope equals $k$, take $[\alpha ,\beta ]=[a,b]$. If it exceeds $k$, the intermediate value theorem applied to $h$ gives $\beta \in (a,b)$ with $h(\beta )=k$, and we take $\alpha =a$. If it is below $k$, apply the theorem to $f$ to obtain $\alpha \in (a,b)$ with $f(\alpha )=k$, and take $\beta =b$. In every caseThe mean value theorem on this subinterval then produces $c\in (\alpha ,\beta )\subset (a,b)$ withThis is the Darboux theorem for derivatives for the stated pair of derivative values.