Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2023/prelims/mathematics-ii/1/a/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Oxford 2023 Prelims Mathematics II 1 a Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
For a nonempty set , a supremum is a real number such that for every , and every upper bound of satisfies . Equivalently, is an upper bound and, for every , some satisfies . By completeness of the real numbers, it exists whenever is nonempty and bounded above.
An increasing monotone sequence satisfies for every ; a bounded sequence satisfies for some finite and every . Put . Given , the defining property of the supremum supplies with . For every , monotonicity givesThis is exactly the definition of convergent sequence, so the bounded monotone sequence theorem gives .
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