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Exercise 6.3.3 (Monotone bounded sequences converge)

Prove Proposition 6.3.8.

Proposition 6.3.8. Let (an)n=1∞ be a sequence of real numbers which has some finite upper bound M ∈R, and which is also increasing (i.e., an+1 ≥ anforalln ≥ m). Then (an)n=m∞ is convergent, and in fact

lim ⁡ n→∞an = sup ⁡ (an)n=m∞≤ M.

Answers

Proof. {an} is a sequence, increasing in n, that is bounded above by M finite. By the definition of L = sup ⁡ {an} L ≤ M. In particular, L is finite. Fix 𝜖 ≰ 0 and consider L − 𝜖. By definition of L this is no longer an upper bound, so there exists N such that L − 𝜖 ≤ aN ≤ L. But {an} is increasing and L is the supremum imply L − 𝜖 ≤ an ≤ L, ∀ ⁡n ≥ N. 𝜖 was chosen arbitrarily, so our sequence is eventually 𝜖 close to its sup for any 𝜖 ≰ 0. □

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2021-12-19 20:36
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