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Math MSC PS02 Solutions

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47 views3 pages

Math MSC PS02 Solutions

Uploaded by

Ahmed Adel
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Francesc Dilmé

Mathematics for Economists

Problem Set 2, Solutions


University of Bonn

Solve all problems using proper proofs.

1. Let f : R → R+ be f (x) = x2 . Is it injective? Is it surjective? Explain.

(a) Take x, x0 ∈ R such that x = −x0 and x 6= 0 (for example, x = 1 and


x0 = −1). Note that x 6= x0 and f (x) = x2 = (x0 )2 = f (x0 ), which contradicts
the definition of injective function. Hence, f is not injective.
(b) Let y ∈ R+ be an arbitrary element of the range of the function f . Since
√
y is non-negative, its square root is well defined, x ≡ y, and satisfies that
f (x) = y. This means y belongs to the image of f . Since y was chosen
arbitrarily from the range of f , R+ = f (R). So, the function f is surjective.

2. Let f, g : A → R be two functions with a finite supremum on A ⊂ X.


Show that supx∈A (f (x) + g(x)) ≤ supx∈A f (x) + supx∈A g(x).
Define h ≡ f + g. Also, call f¯ ≡ sup f (x), ḡ ≡ sup
x∈A g(x) and h̄ ≡
x∈A
supx∈A h(x).
One way: Note that, for all x ∈ A, h(x) = f (x) + g(x) ≤ f¯ + ḡ. So, f¯ + ḡ is an
upper bound of h(A). Since the supremum is the least upper bound, h̄ ≤ f¯ + ḡ.
Another way: Assume by contradiction that h̄ > f¯ + ḡ. This means that there
exists some x̄ ∈ A such that h(x̄) > f¯ + ḡ. Indeed, otherwise, f¯ + ḡ would be an
upper bound of h(A) strictly lower than h̄, which would contradict the definition
of h̄ as the supremum of h on A. Note that this implies that f (x̄) + g(x̄) > f¯ + ḡ,
so either f (x̄) > f¯ or g(x̄) > ḡ (or both). This clearly contradicts that f¯ and ḡ
are the suprema of f and g on A, respectively.

3. Let f : X → Y be a function, and A ⊂ X and B ⊂ Y . Prove that


(f |A )−1 (B) = f −1 (B) ∩ A.

(a) Assume x ∈ (f |A )−1 (B). The set (f |A )−1 (B) is clearly contained in the set
(f )−1 (B), since A ⊂ X and the latter one has no restriction on the domain
and allows for a (possibly) larger set of values. This implies x is in (f )−1 (B).
On the other hand, since the restriction f |A is defined on the set A only, x
must also be in A. These two statements together give x ∈ f −1 (B) ∩ A.
(b) Assume x ∈ f −1 (B) ∩ A. This implies (x ∈ A) ∧ (x ∈ f −1 (B)). If we now
restrict f to A, x ∈ f −1 (B) implies x ∈ (f |A )−1 (B) given that x is in set A.
Thus x ∈ (f |A )−1 (B).

1
A shorter version of the proof would be:

x ∈ (f |A )−1 (B) ⇔ (f |A )(x) ∈ B


⇔ (f (x) ∈ B) ∧ (x ∈ A)
⇔ x ∈ f −1 (B) ∩ A .

4. Let A ⊂ X be a set and f : X → Y be a function,. Show that f −1 (f (A)) ⊃ A.


Provide an example of a function f : R → R and a set A ⊂ R such that
f −1 (f (A)) 6= A.
If A is empty then f (A) = ∅ and f −1 (f (A)) = ∅, so the result holds. Assume now
A is not empty. Take any x ∈ A. Since f (x) ∈ f (A), we have that x ∈ f −1 (f (A)),
so the result holds (recall that f −1 (f (A)) ≡ {x0 ∈ X|f (x0 ) ∈ f (A)}).
Consider the function f (x) = x2 for all x ∈ R. Consider the set A ≡ R+ . It is
clear that f (A) = R+ . Nevertheless, since f (R) = R+ , we have that f −1 (f (A)) =
R 6= A.

5. Let f : X → Y be a function and {Bi }i∈I be a collection of subsets of Y .


Prove that f −1 (∩i∈I Bi ) = ∩i∈I f −1 (Bi ).

(a) Assume x ∈ f −1 (∩i∈I Bi ). This implies f (x) ∈ ∩i∈I Bi , which is equivalent


to f (x) ∈ Bi ∀i ∈ I. This means x ∈ f −1 (Bi ) ∀i ∈ I. As a result,
x ∈ ∩i∈I f −1 (Bi ).
(b) Assume x ∈ ∩i∈I f −1 (Bi ). This means x ∈ f −1 (Bi ) ∀i ∈ I and thus
f (x) ∈ Bi ∀i ∈ I. This is equivalent to f (x) ∈ ∩i∈I Bi , which implies
x ∈ f −1 (∩i∈I Bi ).

6. Let f : R → R be a bounded function and h(y) ≡ supx≥y (f (x)) for all


y ∈ R. Show that h is decreasing.
h(·) is well defined because, since f is bounded, {f (x)|x ≥ y} is bounded for
all y ∈ R. Assume, by contradiction, h(y1 ) < h(y2 ) for some y1 < y2 . Note
that {f (x)|x ≥ y2 } ⊂ {f (x)|x ≥ y1 }. Then, since h(y1 ) is an upper bound of
{f (x)|x ≥ y1 }, it is also an upper bound of {f (x)|x ≥ y2 }. Since the supremum
of a set is its lowest upper bound, sup({f (x)|x ≥ y2 }) ≤ sup({f (x)|x ≥ y1 }),
which is a contradiction.
1−aN +1
7. Prove using induction that N n
P
n=0 a = 1−a
for all N ∈ N and a ∈ R\{1}.
Fix some a 6= 1.

(a) Proof for N = 1:


1
1 − a2 (1 − a)(1 + a) X
= = 1 + a = a0 + a1 = an .
1−a 1−a n=0

2
1−aN +1
PN
(b) Suppose (induction hypothesis) that n=0 an = 1−a
is true for some N .
Then,
N +1 N
X X 1 − aN +1
an = an + aN +1 = + aN +1
n=0 n=0
1−a
1 − aN +1 (1 − a)aN +1 1 − aN +1 + aN +1 − aN +2
= + =
1−a 1−a 1−a
1 − aN +2
= .
1−a
So it is also true for N + 1.

8. Prove that Z is countable by explicitly finding a bijection between Z


and N.
Define, for all x ∈ Z, (
2x if x > 0,
f (x) ≡
−2x + 1 if x ≤ 0.
This function maps integers into natural numbers. We first prove that f is in-
jective. Consider any x1 , x2 ∈ Z, x1 6= x2 . If x1 , x2 > 0 or x1 , x2 ≤ 0 it is clear
that f (x1 ) 6= f (x2 ). Assume that x1 ≤ 0 < x2 (the remaining case is analogous).
In this case, f (x1 ) is odd while f (x2 ) is even, so f (x1 ) 6= f (x2 ). To prove that
is surjective, consider any natural number y. The even (natural) numbers are
clearly in the image of the function. The odd (natural) numbers are also in the
image, since f (0) = 1 and f (−x) = 2x + 1 for all x ≥ 1.
Note that the inverse of the function, which maps naturals into integers, is:
(
y/2 if y is even,
f −1 (y) =
−(y − 1)/2 if y is odd.

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