Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Oxford / 2023 / Prelims / Mathematics II / 5 / b

Write $f_n\to f$ and $g_n\to g$ with uniform convergence. The triangle inequality givesHence $f_n+g_n\to f+g$ with uniform convergence.

If every $f_n,g_n$ is a bounded function, part iii gives constants $M_f,M_g$ bounding the two families. Their pointwise limits satisfy $|f|\le M_f$ and $|g|\le M_g$. ConsequentlyThus both sums and products have uniform convergence under the stated hypotheses. The product estimate is the uniform convergence product rule for bounded functions.

On $E=\mathbb{R}$, take $f_n(x)=x$ and $g_n(x)=1/n$. Then $f_n\to f(x)=x$ with uniform convergence, because there is no error, and $g_n\to 0$ with uniform convergence, with error $1/n$. Their products $f_n{g}_n=x/n$ converge pointwise to zero, but for every $n$ the choice $x=n$ gives $|f_n(x)g_n(x)|=1$. Thus the products do not converge uniformly. Here the first family consists of unbounded functions, exactly the missing hypothesis in the preceding estimate.