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ttzhou
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This is my first post on PF, I've been a "Google lurker" for ages though, love the quality of the help provided here. I've done a search and found similar questions for when f, g are uniformly continuous and max(f,g) is discussed, but this question is purely for (x,y) in R^2. So hopefully, I haven't tread too heavily on my first post.
I tried typing LaTeX but it's been a nightmare, hopefully I'll work out the kinks in the future.
Given h : R2 ---> R, h(x,y) = max(x,y), show that h is continuous at any point (x0,y0) in its domain.
There is an equation that relates max(x,y) to a function purely of the two variables, x and y. However, for the assignment, as well as my own curiosity, I wonder how one would go about doing this using the pure epsilon delta method for proving continuity, avoiding any characterization of continuity through sequences, etc.
I've broken it down into cases.
1. If x0 = y0, then simply choose ||(x,y) - (x0,y0)|| < [tex]\delta = \epsilon[/tex].
Then, we note that, WLOG (we can interchange x0 and y0)
|max(x,y) - x0| <= ||(x,y) - (x0,x0)|| = ||(x,y) - (x0,y0)|| < [tex]\delta = \epsilon[/tex]
and so it is approximated by arbitrary epsilon whenever the delta condition is satisfied.
2. If x0 does not equal y0, this is where I get stumped.
I suppose WLOG that x0 < y0. (Again, I can switch around for the other case.)
Then |max(x,y) - max(x0,y0)| = |max(x,y) - y0|
(Denote M = max(x,y) for convenience)
I cannot for the life of me figure out the proper algebra to get to a nice form where I can apply the appropriate deltas. There are too many messy attempts that I've made to list all here.
I tried |M - y0| < |M - y| + |y - y0| by triangle inequality, but that keeps leaving a mismatched x and y0 or y and x0, and I can't see how finding lower/upper bounds would work here either.
My professor has stated that I am on the right track with the cases, and gave a hint about using epsilon delta to play around with the inequality x0 < y0, but I can't figure it out.
I sketched the function mentally, it looks kind of like the sharp corner of the eaves of a house; I can see it geometrically, but am unable to find the right algebraic relation.
ANY help or hints are greatly appreciated! Thank you all in advance.
I tried typing LaTeX but it's been a nightmare, hopefully I'll work out the kinks in the future.
Homework Statement
Given h : R2 ---> R, h(x,y) = max(x,y), show that h is continuous at any point (x0,y0) in its domain.
Homework Equations
There is an equation that relates max(x,y) to a function purely of the two variables, x and y. However, for the assignment, as well as my own curiosity, I wonder how one would go about doing this using the pure epsilon delta method for proving continuity, avoiding any characterization of continuity through sequences, etc.
The Attempt at a Solution
I've broken it down into cases.
1. If x0 = y0, then simply choose ||(x,y) - (x0,y0)|| < [tex]\delta = \epsilon[/tex].
Then, we note that, WLOG (we can interchange x0 and y0)
|max(x,y) - x0| <= ||(x,y) - (x0,x0)|| = ||(x,y) - (x0,y0)|| < [tex]\delta = \epsilon[/tex]
and so it is approximated by arbitrary epsilon whenever the delta condition is satisfied.
2. If x0 does not equal y0, this is where I get stumped.
I suppose WLOG that x0 < y0. (Again, I can switch around for the other case.)
Then |max(x,y) - max(x0,y0)| = |max(x,y) - y0|
(Denote M = max(x,y) for convenience)
I cannot for the life of me figure out the proper algebra to get to a nice form where I can apply the appropriate deltas. There are too many messy attempts that I've made to list all here.
I tried |M - y0| < |M - y| + |y - y0| by triangle inequality, but that keeps leaving a mismatched x and y0 or y and x0, and I can't see how finding lower/upper bounds would work here either.
My professor has stated that I am on the right track with the cases, and gave a hint about using epsilon delta to play around with the inequality x0 < y0, but I can't figure it out.
I sketched the function mentally, it looks kind of like the sharp corner of the eaves of a house; I can see it geometrically, but am unable to find the right algebraic relation.
ANY help or hints are greatly appreciated! Thank you all in advance.
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