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A continuous, nowhere differentiable function.

First define a saw-tooth function f(x) to be the distance from x to the integer closest to x. Here's a plot of f:

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Now define tex2html_wrap_inline347 to be tex2html_wrap_inline349 . This has tex2html_wrap_inline351 as many ``teeth'' as f per unit interval, but their height is tex2html_wrap_inline355 times the height of the teeth of f. Here's a plot of tex2html_wrap_inline359 , for example:

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Finally, define h(x) to be the sum tex2html_wrap_inline363 . For every x this sum converges by comparison with a geometric series. It's already beyond elementary calculus to show that h(x) is continuous (to advanced calculus students: h(x) is the sum of a uniformly converging series of continuous functions, hence continuous). For the proof that h(x) is not differentiable, see appendix A of N. J. De Lillo's ``Advanced Calculus with Applications''. The rough idea is that at every step we add more and more corners. Here's a plot of h(x): (actually only a partial sum rather than the infinite sum).

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Tom Vogel
Mon May 5 12:53:33 CDT 1997