Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2005/paper-2/10/a/solution

For a strictly decreasing function, in the interior of . Integrating over the unit interval and summing from to gives the integral comparison for a nonincreasing nonnegative function:
Geometrically, right-endpoint rectangles lie below the curve and left-endpoint rectangles above it. If “decreasing” permits flat pieces, use non-strict inequalities unless strictness is ensured on some interval. When , the endpoint value is also needed; the power function below is defined there.

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