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406 Homework III Solutions

February 28, 2006

Section 9.3.7 1, 2, 4, 7, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 26

Problem 1 () If f is continuous and A is closed in N , then Ac is open in

N and f 1 (Ac ) is open in M . But f 1 (Ac ) = [f 1 (A)]c , so the complement
of f 1 (A) is open in M , i.e. f 1 (A) is closed in M .
() Conversely if f 1 (A) is closed in M for every closed A N , then
for every open subset B of N , f 1 (B c ) = [f 1 (B)]c is closed in M . Thus
f 1 (B) is open in M , and f is continuous.
Problem 2 Let D0 (x) = d(x, x0 ). Since every open subset of R can be
written as a union of finite intervals, and for any function f : M R,
continuous or not, f 1 (A B) = f 1 (A) f 1 (B) for any two subsets A, B
of R, it is enough to prove that D01 ((a, b)) is open for any (finite) a, b R.
We do this by handling several cases separately:
Case 1: a < 0, b 0 In this case Dx1
(a, b) = , which is open.
0
Case 2: a < 0, b > 0 Here D01 ((a, b)) = {x : d(x, x0 ) < b, i.e. the ball of
radius b about x. This set is open by definition in the metric topology on
M.
Case 3: a 0 Finally, in this case D01 is an annulus A(a, b) = {x : a <
d(x, x0 ) < b}. Let x A(a, b) and = d(x, x0 ). Then if 0 = min((b
)/2, ( a)/2), we have B(x, 0 ) A(a, b) (use the triangle inequality).
Thus A(a, b) is open in M , and we are finished.
Problem 4 Let h = g f. We will show that if xn x in M , h(xn ) h(x)
in Rn . We have, by the triangle inequality on Rn ,
kh(xn ) h(x)k |g(xn ) g(x)|kf (xn )k + |g(x)|kf (xn ) f (x)k
where || denotes ordinary absolute value on R. Since both f and g are
continuous, kf (xn )k is bounded, and both g(xn ), f (xn ) converge to g(x)
and f (x) as n , the right hand side of the above inequality converges
to zero as n . This proves that h is continuous.
1

Problem 7 As Strogatz suggests, let X be the set of points in A that can

be joined to a given point x0 by a curve. We will prove that X is both open
and closed in A. Openness is easy; let x X and : [0, 1] A be a curve
joining x0 to x. Let B(x, ) A be a ball of radius about x contained in
A, which exists because A is open. Then for any y B(x, ), the path

(2t),
0 t 1/2;
y (t) =
(2 2t)x + (2t 2)y, 1/2 t 1.
joins x0 to y and lies completely in A, because B(x, ) is convex. To prove
that X is closed in A, let xn X converge to x A. If B(x, ) A, we
know that there exists N so large that xN B(x, ). We can now construct
a path joining x0 to x by concatenating the path joining x0 to xN with the
straight line segment joining xN to x, which lies in the ball B(x, ) and hence
in A. Thus X is closed. We know that A is connected iff the only sets in
A that are open and closed as subsets of A are the empty set and A itself.
Thus X = A iff A is connected. It follows that A is arcwise connected iff it
is connected.
Problem 15 f (x) = xn , for any n 2, does the job.
Problem 16 We compute, for x, y (1, ),
|f (x)f (y)| = |(xy)/2+a(yx)/2xy| = |(xy)(1/2a/2xy)| max[1/2, (a1)/2]|xy|
Since 1 < a < 3, ) < max(1/2, (a 1)/2) < 1. Moreover, if x (1, ), so is
(x/2) + (a/2x) for a > 1. This can be checked by calculus. Thus f satisfies
the assumptions of the contractive mapping theorem. The fixed point can
be found by solving the equation f (x ) = x , which gives
x =
Problem 17
estimating

a.

We first show that T f (x) C([0, 1]). This can be done by

Z

|T f (x) T f (y)| |x y| +

|yx|

tf (t) dt

|x y|(1 + |f |sup )
Thus T maps continuous functions to continuous functions. Now we show
that T is a contraction operator, i.e. |T f1 T f2 |sup r|f1 f2 |sup for some
r < 1. We thus compute
2

|(T f1 T f2 )(x)| =

Z
sup |(f1 f2 )(x)|
x[0,1]

t(f1 (t) f2 (t)) dt

t dt
0

|f1 f2 |sup
2

This proves that T satisfies all the hypotheses of the Contractive Mapping
Principle. If f is the fixed point of T , we see that f is differentiable immediately. We have
Z x
d
f 0 (x) = (T f )0 (x) = 1 +
tf (t) dt = 1 + xf (x)
dx 0
by the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus.
Problem 20 To prove that A is closed in N f 1 (A) is closed in M , we
argue as follows. Clearly if A is closed in N , f 1 (A) is closed in M , since f
is continuous.
Problem 1 Problem 1