Least Upper Bound: $\text{sup}\{r\in\mathbb{Q}:r<5\}$

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What is $\text{sup}\{r\in\mathbb{Q}:r<5\}$ and why? I would suspect that no least upper bound is possible here, and hence no maximum is attainable either...

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Did you intend to write $r^2<5$? In such a case, no supremum exists within $\Bbb Q$; since $\sqrt 5$ is irrational, yet $\sup \{r\in\mathbb{Q}:r^2<5\}=\sqrt 5$ in the reals. Indeed, the set has no maximum.

If you really meant $r<5$, this set has a supremum both in $\Bbb Q$ and $\Bbb R$ and it is $5$. Can you see why this is the case? By definition of $\{r\in\mathbb{Q}:r<5\}$, $5$ is an upper bound. On the other hand, any other upper bound must be $\geq 5$, so $5$ is indeed the least upper bound. Like the other set, it has no maximum. For any $a<5$, $$a<\frac{a+5}2<5$$