Suprema and Infima: Examples and Counterexamples
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✓ 8 results · all verified · 5 also independently AI-judged
Every result on this page is machine-checked by a proof checker and read in full by a delegated reviewing agent on the owner's instruction; the judge is an additional, independent cross-model AI review of the proofs. The 3 not AI-judged were verified by owner audit (typically over a confirmed judge false positive), not failures.
1 · Prerequisites
Real Analysis
2 · Logical flowchart
3 · Items
Example
sup(0,1) = 1 and inf(0,1) = 0, with neither attained
Example
sup[0,1] = 1 = max[0,1] and inf[0,1] = 0 = min[0,1]
Example
inf{1/n : n ≥ 1} = 0, not attained, while sup{1/n : n ≥ 1} = 1 is
Example
sup{q ∈ ℚ : q > 0, q² < 2} = √2 in ℝ, and no supremum in ℚ
Example
(0,1) + (2,3) = (2,4), with supremum 4 = sup(0,1) + sup(2,3)
Counterexample
A supremum need not belong to its set: sup(0,1) = 1 ∉ (0,1)
Counterexample
An unbounded set has no supremum: the naturals inside ℝ
Counterexample
The empty set is bounded and has no supremum
Sources
- Infimum and supremum (Wikipedia)
- Interval (mathematics) (Wikipedia)
- W. Rudin, Principles of Mathematical Analysis, 3rd ed., Ch. 1
- John K. Hunter, An Introduction to Real Analysis
- Maximum and minimum (Wikipedia)
- Archimedean property (Wikipedia)
- T. Tao, Analysis I, 3rd ed.
- Least-upper-bound property (Wikipedia)
- Square root of 2 (Wikipedia)
- MIT 18.100A, Complete Lecture Notes
- Minkowski addition (Wikipedia)
- Peter J. Olver, Continuous Calculus
- Extended real number line (Wikipedia)