Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2015/prelims/mathematics-ii/1/a/iv/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Oxford 2015 Prelims Mathematics II 1 a iv Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
If , every subsequence also has limit of a sequence : its increasing indices eventually exceed any prescribed threshold. This applies in particular to every monotone subsequence.
Conversely, suppose is a bounded sequence and all its monotone subsequences converge to the same . At least one exists by the monotone subsequence theorem. If did not tend to , there would be and a subsequence such thatApply the monotone subsequence theorem to . The resulting further subsequence is also a monotone subsequence of , so it tends to , contradicting the displayed bound. ThereforeThe bounded monotone sequence theorem ensures that these subsequences have finite limits of sequences; the hypothesis requires those values to agree.
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