Let be the weak derivative and define
The fundamental theorem of calculus for Lebesgue integration makes an absolutely continuous function, differentiable almost everywhere, with almost everywhere. The distributional derivative of is zero. A locally integrable function with zero distributional derivative on a connected interval is equal almost everywhere to a constant . Consequently
is an absolutely continuous representative of , and almost everywhere.
Taylor formula with integral remainder Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-11-05
Let , let , and suppose is an absolutely continuous function. Its almost-everywhere weak derivative belongs to L1 space, and
Repeated use of the fundamental theorem of calculus for Lebesgue integration and interchange of the finite triangular integration region proves the formula. The highest derivative need not be continuous or bounded.
For , the remainder satisfies
If the highest derivative is bounded, direct integration improves this to . For on , and is integrable but unbounded. The formula with still gives . This is why the integral remainder is useful beyond a bounded-derivative error estimate.