Continuously differentiable functions on a compact interval form a Banach algebra ($C^1[0,1],\Vert f\Vert =\Vert f{\Vert }_{\infty }+\Vert f^{\prime }{\Vert }_{\infty }$)

With complex scalars and pointwise multiplication, the product rule gives a submultiplicative norm. For a Cauchy sequence, uniform limits $f$ of the functions and $g$ of their derivatives satisfy $f(t)-f(0)={\int }_0^{t}g(s)ds$, proving $f^{\prime }=g$ and completeness. Polynomials are dense in this norm: approximate $f^{\prime }$ uniformly by polynomials and integrate, fixing the initial value. This also identifies the character space of C1 on a compact interval.

The coordinate function has spectrum $[0,1]$: outside the interval its difference from a scalar has a continuously differentiable reciprocal, and on the interval it has a zero. Every character of an algebra therefore takes the coordinate to some $t\in [0,1]$. Polynomial density in the norm containing both function and derivative, together with automatic continuity of characters, forces evaluation at $t$ on every function. The maximal ideals are exactly $\{f:f(t)=0\}$.