Inspired by Kishore Shenoy

Calculus Level 2

True or False?

The derivative of a differentiable function is continuous.


Inspiration .

False True

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2 solutions

Calvin Lin Staff
Oct 15, 2015

The standard example used is:

f ( x ) = { x 2 sin 1 x x 0 0 x = 0 f(x) = \begin{cases} x^2 \sin \frac{1}{x} & x \neq 0 \\ 0 & x = 0 \\ \end{cases}

It is easy to see that away from x = 0 x = 0 , the function is differentiable, and has derivative of the form 2 x sin 1 x cos 1 x 2 x \sin \frac{1}{x} - \cos \frac{1}{x} .

At the origin, it is easy to see (esp from the graph as it's bounded by ± x 2 \pm x^2 ) that the derivative is 0. We can show this properly using first principles, since
lim x 2 sin 1 x 0 x = lim x sin 1 x = 0. \lim \frac{ x^2 \sin \frac{1}{x} - 0 } { x } = \lim x \sin \frac{1}{x} = 0.

We see that the derivative is discontinuous at 0, because it looks like the topologists sine curve.


This gives a single point of discontinuity. Volterra's function is a fractal version of this construction, and results in a function that is differentiable, but whose derivative is discontinuous on a set of positive measure (due to the fat Cantor set).

I think the trick is in the question! It doesn't mention anything about the function whether it is continuous or not.

Mahabubul Islam - 5 years, 7 months ago

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Nope, that's not the trick. Differentiable functions are a subset of continuous functions. So the function is continuous.

Calvin Lin Staff - 5 years, 7 months ago

You can also say Weierstrass Function too!

Kishore S. Shenoy - 5 years, 7 months ago

I think there is an answer in the link below

Derivative

Can you explain what the idea is?

Calvin Lin Staff - 5 years, 7 months ago

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