A left-continuous cumulative function of an atomic measure with positive masses at a dense countable set has dense discontinuities. Nevertheless it is bounded and monotone on a compact interval, hence a Riemann-integrable function. Finite step-function sums approximate it uniformly because the positive masses are summable. Thus dense discontinuities do not imply failure of the Riemann integral.
For a nonnegative Riemann-integrable function and an interval partition,
Every factor is nonnegative, so multiplication of is legitimate. The final step uses the lower-sum bound on the Riemann integral.
The extreme value theorem ensures that is finite. Since and , multiplication preserves the inequality. Monotonicity of the Riemann integral gives the required bound
To prove the weighted mean value theorem for integrals, put and . If , then , so any works. This includes .
If , the extreme value theorem gives and . Integrating gives . A continuous function on an interval takes every value between its minimum and maximum by the intermediate value theorem. Choose with . Consequently
For a partition , put and
Boundedness makes these finite. The lower Darboux sum and upper Darboux sum are
Since and the widths are positive, .
Splitting a partition interval into smaller intervals can only increase each infimum and decrease each supremum. The smaller widths sum to the original width. Its new lower contribution is therefore at least its old lower contribution, and its new upper contribution at most its old upper contribution. Repeating this for every inserted point proves Darboux sum refinement monotonicity:
For arbitrary partitions, take their common partition refinement . Then
No compatibility of the original partitions is required.
Finally suppose is Riemann integrable. Then , so every product factor is nonnegative and the exponential inequality can be multiplied safely:
A lower Darboux sum is no greater than the Riemann integral, since the integral equals the supremum of all lower sums. Monotonicity of the exponential therefore gives the exponential bound for a lower-sum product
For a degenerate interval , the empty product and the exponential are both one.
For a bounded real function on , take a partition with nodes . Its lower Darboux sum and upper Darboux sum are
The function is Riemann integrable when ; their common value is its Riemann integral. Equivalently, for every some partition has . Indeed a common refinement of nearly extremizing upper and lower partitions proves necessity, while arbitrarily small gaps force equality of the two integrals. This is the Riemann integrability criterion.
A continuous function on a compact interval is bounded and uniformly continuous. Choose a mesh small enough that its oscillation on each subinterval is less than . Then ; using first makes the desired inequality strict. Thus every continuous function on is Riemann integrable.
For a partition of an interval , put
The upper Darboux sum and lower Darboux sum are
The upper and lower integrals are
The bounded function is Riemann integrable when these values agree, and their common value is its Riemann integral.
For the indicator of the rational numbers, every nondegenerate interval contains both a rational number and an irrational number. Hence every upper sum is one and every lower sum is zero. The function is not Riemann integrable.
For the one-to-one transformation , the Jacobian determinant used in the stated formula is
Locally, the derivative maps a small rectangular box of volume to a parallelepiped of volume . Partitioning the region into such boxes and passing to the Riemann integral gives the change of variables formula
In the plane , the region is inside the unit circle and on the right-hand side of the hyperbola
It is nonempty exactly when ; it has positive area when . In , its boundaries are and . The minimum and maximum values are and , both at . The largest absolute occurs where the boundaries meet:
Figure 1.
Cross-section of the integration region
.
Now set , , and . The inverse Jacobian determinant is , and in cylindrical coordinates the transformed region is
Thus , and each horizontal cross-section is an annulus. Its volume is
Therefore, for ,
For the region has zero volume.
It is enough to treat an increasing function; replacing by handles a decreasing one. Let be the common refinement of dissections and . Refinement raises lower Darboux sums and lowers upper ones, so
For the uniform dissection , monotonicity gives the telescoping difference
This can be made smaller than any , so the Riemann integrability criterion proves that is integrable.
The integral lies between the lower and upper sums, and the displayed sum in the question is the right-endpoint upper sum. Hence the generally valid sharp estimate is
The strict inequality printed in the question is false for arbitrary monotone functions: if for and , the two sides of (1) are both .
For the final claim, write
Since is continuous on a compact interval, it is uniformly continuous. Uniformly for ,
After the substitution , summing the uniform errors gives
The right-hand sum is a Riemann integral, so the fundamental theorem of calculus yields
Riemann sum Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
For a tagged partition with , the corresponding Riemann sum is
Its limits over increasingly fine partitions define the Riemann integral.