Alphabeta Math
False statementConstruction: Literature-sourcedVerification: AI-generatedprecheck passaudited 2026-09-05
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FALSE: every function of bounded variation is absolutely continuous

Statement

Every function of bounded variation on a compact interval is absolutely continuous.

Facts & Assumptions

Given: The statement above.

[A1]

We refute it with the Cantor function.

Refutation

technique · direct
1.1

The Cantor function c is nondecreasing by The Cantor function is well defined, satisfies c(x)c(y) whenever xy, is surjective onto [0,1], and is constant on every interval removed from the Cantor set, so for every partition 0=x0<<xm=1 the variation sum telescopes to j=1mc(xj)c(xj1)=j=1m(c(xj)c(xj1))=c(1)c(0)=1. Hence c has bounded variation.

givenalgebra
2.1

Iterating the two affine branches in The Cantor middle-thirds set as the intersection of the sets Cn obtained by removing open middle thirds, the stage-n set consists of 2n pairwise disjoint closed intervals indexed by the n-digit words in {0,2}n, each of length 3n. Their total length is therefore (2/3)n, which tends to 0 by For r<1 the sequence rk is null, and for r>1 the sequence rk diverges to +. For the interval indexed by a word w, its endpoints have ternary digits w followed respectively by all 0's and all 2's (The Cantor set is exactly the set of k1ak3k with every ak{0,2}, and this gives a bijection with {0,1}N). The identity c=γ on the Cantor set from claim 1 of The Cantor function is well defined, satisfies c(x)c(y) whenever xy, is surjective onto [0,1], and is constant on every interval removed from the Cantor set, together with the binary-digit formula in The Cantor function on [0,1], defined on the Cantor set through ternary digits and extended constantly across each removed interval, therefore gives endpoint increment kn2k1=2n. Thus the sum of the endpoint increments over the stage-n intervals is always 2n2n=1. The total input length can be arbitrarily small while this increment sum stays 1, so c fails the defining ε-δ condition of Absolute continuity on a compact interval. Hence c is not absolutely continuous and the statement is false.

step 1.1algebra

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Sources