
Delve into graduate calculus with rigorous proofs and precise reasoning, using past prelim-style questions, star solutions, and a seven-section structure with downloadable homework packets.
Explain why the real numbers, with order and completeness, support calculus through the supremum axiom, and contrast with rationals lacking completeness and complex numbers lacking order.
Investigate the limit of sin(2π√(n^2+1)); use the periodic nature to subtract multiples of 2π, turning the expression into a small angle that tends to zero, confirming the limit is zero.
Increasing function f from [0,1] to [0,1] has a fixed point. The argument uses x* = sup{ x ∈ [0,1] : f(x) ≥ x } and shows f(x*) = x*.
Analyze how the integral of f(x) t/(t^2+x^2) over [-1,1] has a limit pi f(0) as t approaches zero from the positive side; the limit depends only on f(0).
Explore metric spaces through distance functions, triangle inequality, and intrinsic path distance; compare norm-induced metrics, graph distances, Hausdorff distance, and graph edit distance.
Define a sequence as a function from natural numbers into a space, using indices n and A_n. Analyze boundedness, convergence, monotone behavior, and real-valued limits within metric spaces.
Define a Cauchy sequence as tail values within epsilon after a cutoff, indicating near convergence. Complete metric spaces guarantee such sequences converge to a limit in the space, unlike Q.
Define a subsequence as a∘j with an increasing j. The lecture shows that if a_n converges, every subsequence converges, and that c_n is not a subsequence of a_n.
Explore limit supremum and limit infimum for real sequences, defined via supremums of tails, with guaranteed existence, including finite values or infinity, and intuitive subsequential limits.
Learn how compactness forces a sequence to converge to x when every convergent subsequence does. The lecture covers convergence definitions, proof by contradiction, and the necessity of compactness with examples.
Apply the root and ratio tests to complex series with absolute values. Prove that limsup of the nth root of a_n is ≤ alpha for any epsilon.
Define a series as the limit of partial sums of a real or complex sequence, and clarify that convergence depends on the sequence and not the starting index.
Apply the Cauchy condition to series by examining partial sums and their differences, noting that a nonzero limit implies divergence and convergence requires Cauchy behavior.
Study the convergence of positively valued series. Use the integral test with monotone partial sums and limsup ratio tests for exercises including tangent of one over n to the p.
Explore absolute convergence and the alternating series test, showing that absolute convergence implies convergence in complete normed spaces, with the Leibniz test for sign-alternating series.
Compare the root test and ratio test to determine convergence of series, including power series, using absolute values of terms to define the radius r.
Show that if sum a_n converges with non-negative terms, then sum sqrt(a_n)/n converges by Cauchy-Schwarz, using partial sums and a finite Hölder bound.
The series tan(1/n^p) converges precisely when p>1; the proof uses a mean value theorem based comparison to 1/n^p to establish divergence for p≤1.
Demonstrate that the limsup of (sum a_n)/(sum b_n) does not exceed the limsup of a_n/b_n by an epsilon argument and a cutoff n0.
Define accumulation points and isolated points; establish limits via sequences and epsilon-delta, and show continuity depends on whether x0 is isolated or a limit point, and on non-interval domains.
Define the limit supremum of a function at an accumulation point via phi(delta), the delta-neighborhood supremum, and show its limit as delta approaches zero exists (possibly plus or minus infinity).
Explore lower semicontinuity and upper semicontinuity in variational problems, showing how infimum and minimizing sequences lead to a minimizer, for example via the Dirichlet energy and the Laplace equation.
Shows that when endpoints lack a limit, a continuous function attains every value between lim sup and lim inf. The intermediate value theorem yields x_n with f(x_n)=y, converging to zero.
Learn how open balls define metric space topology, distinguish open and closed sets via accumulation points, and prove equivalence of topological and pointwise continuity for maps between metric spaces.
Define compact sets by the finite subcover property for any open cover. Show that in R1, compact sets are closed and bounded, and every sequence has a convergent subsequence.
Explore the finite intersection property of compact sets, proving that any intersection of a family with nonempty finite intersections remains nonempty, and examine open coverings and Cantor set implications.
Explore how compact sets behave under continuous functions and how their images remain compact in any topological space. The proof uses open coverings and finite subcovers.
Show that continuous functions on compact sets attain a maximum and a minimum, using image compactness and sequential compactness. Explain how upper and lower semicontinuity guarantee extrema and practical consequences.
Show how compact domains elevate continuity to uniform continuity for any continuous function, using finite coverings, half-radius deltas, and the triangle inequality to bound f(x) and f(y) by two epsilon.
This lecture proves the diameter of compact sets via a direct two-step method: define delta(x)=max_y d(x,y), show delta is 1-Lipschitz and continuous, then maximize delta.
Apply the diameter concept to k and its image f(k). Because k=f(k) forces x0=y0, f(k) becomes a singleton, hence k is a singleton.
Explore how contraction type maps admit fixed points on compact spaces by analyzing the continuous distance function phi, its minimum, and the uniqueness argument.
Define connectedness in topology and show that a space cannot split into two disjoint open sets, while continuous maps preserve connectedness and yield the intermediate value theorem for real-valued maps.
Explore how locality defines properties like locally Lipschitz, locally integrable, and locally compact, using neighborhoods and closures to distinguish local from global behavior.
Show how local constancy on an open set extends to global constancy, proving that open connected sets are path connected through line restrictions and preimage arguments.
See how local properties and a maximal set argument prove global constancy of a function on a connected interval, once a global minimum and local maximum are established.
Show antipodal points for a map from S1 to S1 by using a continuous arc-length function a(x) from f(x) to f(x+pi) and the intermediate value theorem; discuss injectivity and topology.
In graduate calculus, explore how injective continuous self maps of the circle preserve connectedness, using a lemma about arcs to show the image of S1 equals S1, with a contradiction.
Examine how continuity strengthens from basic pointwise continuity to uniform, absolute, and Lipschitz forms using the modulus of continuity. Learn how omega(d(x,y)) bounds |f(x)-f(y)| and yields global, epsilon-like control.
Explore absolute continuity in graduate calculus and its role in the fundamental theorem of calculus, contrast with the Cantor Vitali function, and define absolute continuity via epsilon-delta against non-overlapping intervals.
Explore Lipschitz and Hölder continuity and their links to the mean value theorem, including modulus, local Lipschitz behavior, and the constant outcome for alpha greater than one on intervals.
Uniform continuity uses a delta independent of the point and defines a modulus; compact domains ensure it and preserve Cauchy sequences, enabling extensions to closures.
Graduate calculus reveals that an unbounded function cannot be uniformly continuous, by constructing a sequence x_n → 0 with f(x_{n+1}) > f(x_n) + 1, contradicting the delta condition.
on a compact subset of R^n, a continuous function is almost Lipschitz: uniform continuity handles small distances with epsilon, while a bound M controls larger distances.
This course provides you with the rigorous mathematics that underlies calculus. You will see proofs of results you have seen in undergraduate calculus and be introduced to much deeper notions, such as compact sets, uniform continuity, Lipschitz continuity, limit supremum, etc., all in the generality of metric spaces as well.
By working on difficult homework questions, chosen from actual exams, you will be ready to take Qualifying, a.k.a. Prelim, exams in graduate schools. This course can also help with GRE in math subject.
You will learn how to write accurate and rigorous proofs. I will show you how to approach a problem and how to bring together scattered observation to formulate a proof. Then, via examples that I do myself, I show you how to present your solutions in a coherent and rigorous way that will meet the standard expected of graduate students (in qualifying exams).
In this part 1, we cover
sequences, and their limits (in metric spaces)
limit supremum and limit infimum
continuity and semi-continuity
series, convergence tests
topological definition of continuity
continuous functions on compact sets
continuous functions on connected sets
local properties
modulus of continuity
uniformly continuous functions, Lipschitz and Hölder maps, absolutely continuous functions
A possible future course will cover single-variable differential and integral calculus: uniform convergence of sequences and series of functions, equi-continuity, power series, analytic functions and Taylor series. A whole separate course (or even two) is needed to cover multivariable calculus -- but that is far into future.
Here is how material is organized:
Video Lectures. Each section (7 total) begins with lectures that cover definitions, provide key examples and counter-examples, and present the most important theorems, accompanied with proofs if the proofs are instructive.
Homework sets with prelim questions. The first lecture of each section contains a downloadable PDF containing question from past prelim exam (or at a comparable difficulty level to them). This is your homework! You are encouraged to spend as much time as you can to try to find solutions on your own.
Solutions to select exercises from homework sets. In the last video lectures of each section, I show solutions to the *-ed exercises from the homework. I do not just give you a final clean solution. Instead, I walk you through the (initially messy) process that leads one to discover a solution. I teach you how to make small observations and then bring them together to form a solution. Finally, I show you how to write math in a rigorous way that will meet standards of exams and of mathematical conventions. This latter skill cannot be overlooked.
I am so excited to have this course out and cannot wait for your feedback.