Lecture

Sequence Convergence: Definitions and Properties

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In course

MATH-101(c): Analysis I

Étudier les concepts fondamentaux d'analyse et le calcul différentiel et intégral des fonctions réelles d'une variable. ...

Description

This lecture covers the definitions and properties related to sequence convergence. It starts by defining bounded sequences and then moves on to discuss increasing and decreasing sequences. The concept of a sequence tending towards a limit is explained, along with the properties of limits. The lecture also introduces the concept of convergence towards zero and explores the uniqueness of limits. The two gendarmes theorem is presented as a method to study sequences. Various examples and proofs are provided to illustrate the concepts discussed.

Instructor

Sacha Friedli

Diploma of Physics, Université de Lausanne, 1999 Phd, Institut de Physique Théorique, EPFL, 1999-2004 Post-doc, IMPA (Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada), Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, 2004-2006 Adjunct professor, Departamento de Matemática (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais), 2006-2016 Collaborateur Scientifique, Cours de Mathématiques Spéciales, EPFL, Lausanne, 2016-

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Mathematics

Topology: General topology

Related concepts (32)

Sequence

In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called elements, or terms). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is called the length of the sequence. Unlike a set, the same elements can appear multiple times at different positions in a sequence, and unlike a set, the order does matter. Formally, a sequence can be defined as a function from natural numbers (the positions of elements in the sequence) to the elements at each position.

Cauchy sequence

In mathematics, a Cauchy sequence, named after Augustin-Louis Cauchy, is a sequence whose elements become arbitrarily close to each other as the sequence progresses. More precisely, given any small positive distance, all but a finite number of elements of the sequence are less than that given distance from each other. It is not sufficient for each term to become arbitrarily close to the term. For instance, in the sequence of square roots of natural numbers: the consecutive terms become arbitrarily close to each other – their differences tend to zero as the index n grows.

Monotone convergence theorem

In the mathematical field of real analysis, the monotone convergence theorem is any of a number of related theorems proving the convergence of monotonic sequences (sequences that are non-decreasing or non-increasing) that are also bounded. Informally, the theorems state that if a sequence is increasing and bounded above by a supremum, then the sequence will converge to the supremum; in the same way, if a sequence is decreasing and is bounded below by an infimum, it will converge to the infimum.

Real number

In mathematics, a real number is a number that can be used to measure a continuous one-dimensional quantity such as a distance, duration or temperature. Here, continuous means that pairs of values can have arbitrarily small differences. Every real number can be almost uniquely represented by an infinite decimal expansion. The real numbers are fundamental in calculus (and more generally in all mathematics), in particular by their role in the classical definitions of limits, continuity and derivatives.

Limit inferior and limit superior

In mathematics, the limit inferior and limit superior of a sequence can be thought of as limiting (that is, eventual and extreme) bounds on the sequence. They can be thought of in a similar fashion for a function (see limit of a function). For a set, they are the infimum and supremum of the set's limit points, respectively. In general, when there are multiple objects around which a sequence, function, or set accumulates, the inferior and superior limits extract the smallest and largest of them; the type of object and the measure of size is context-dependent, but the notion of extreme limits is invariant.

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