Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Oxford / 2017 / Prelims / Mathematics II / 7 / a / Solution

By the Heine-Cantor theorem, a continuous function on the compact interval $[a,b]$ is uniformly continuous. Given $\epsilon >0$, choose $\delta >0$ such that $|f(s)-f(t)|<\epsilon$ whenever $s,t\in [a,b]$ and $|s-t|<\delta$.

Choose a finite partition of an interval $a=t_0<t_1<\cdots <t_m=b$ with every width below $\delta$. Define the step functionFor each $t<b$, its distance from the chosen left endpoint is below $\delta$, so $|f(t)-\varphi (t)|<\epsilon$; at $b$ the error is zero. HenceA step function may have separately assigned values at its finitely many partition points; these values do not affect its Riemann integral. If $a=b$, simply take $\varphi =f$ on that singleton.