Prove Cantor set is discontinuous at each point

762 Views Asked by At

I think my definition of continuous must be wrong, or I am doing something wrong in answering this question. Can someone tell me what is wrong in my proof?

where $F$ is the characteristic function, and $\Delta$ is the cantor set, Show that $F_\Delta:R\rightarrow R$ is discontinuous at each point of $\Delta$

The characteristic function is $0$ if $x\notin \Delta$ and 1 if $x \in \Delta$,

Definition of continuous from text :

$x,a \in A$, where $A$ and $B$ are some sets, $f:A\rightarrow B$

$\forall \epsilon > 0 \,\exists \,\delta >0$ S.T. $|f(x)-f(a)|<\epsilon$ whenever $|x-a|<\delta$

If you consider the Cantor function as the intersection of intervals, $I_n$, where each $I_n$ is broken into a union of intervals $K_{i}$, then $\forall \,X \in \Delta$, $x\in I_nK_i$. Basically for any $n$, $x$ is in some $I_nK_i$. Each of these $I_nK_i$ is of length $\frac{1}{3^n}$. If you choose $x_n$ to be the right endpoint of each of these $I_nk_i$, then $x=lim_{n\rightarrow \infty}\{x_n\}$

Since each point in $\Delta$ is the limit of a sequence {$x_n\}_0^\infty$, where each $x_n$ is in $\Delta$, then $\forall \, \delta \, \exists \,n$ S.T. $|x_n-x|<\delta$.

Thus, $\forall \epsilon > 0,\, |f(x_n)-f(x)|=1-1=0<\epsilon$

So $\Delta$ should be continuous by the definition above.

But the questions answer states $\Delta$ is not continuous because the Cantor function contains no open intervals the characteristic function is open.

What am I missing, is my definition of continuous wrong?

1

There are 1 best solutions below

0
On

One characterization of continuity of a function $f$ at a point $x$ is that for all sequences $(x_n)$ such that $x_n\to x$ we have that $f(x_n)\to f(x)$. You have only shown this implication for one choice of $(x_n)$. Your proof shows that any point in the cantor set is the limit of points in the cantor set. But it is also the case every point in the cantor set is the limit of points not in the cantor set.