Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2021/prelims/mathematics-ii/4/b/i/solution

Write the symmetric difference quotient as the average of two ordinary difference quotients:
If is differentiable at , both terms tend to the derivative . Hence the symmetric derivative satisfies .
The absolute value function is continuous, and because . Its right one-sided derivative at zero is and its left one-sided derivative is , so it is not differentiable at zero. Away from zero it is differentiable, hence has a symmetric derivative there as well. This supplies an example meeting the hypotheses on, for example, .

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