Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2014 / ia / Paper 1 / 10E / iii / Solution

Let $D=f_{+}^{\prime }(a)$ and write $g(t)=(f(t)-f(a))/(t-a)$ for $t>a$. By the assumed right derivative, choose $\delta >0$ with $|g(t)-D|<ϵ/2$ whenever $a<t<a+\delta$. Choose $b_0\in (a,\min (b,a+\delta ))$.

Apply the mean value theorem to $f$ on $[a,b_0]$. It gives $x\in (a,b_0)$ with $f^{\prime }(x)=g(b_0)$. Both $g(x)$ and $g(b_0)$ are within $ϵ/2$ of $D$, soThis proves the endpoint secant-tangent approximation without any continuity assumption on $f^{\prime }$. The continuity required by the theorem is only that of $f$ itself.