Arkansas Tech University

MATH 2914: Calculus I

Dr. Marcel B. Finan
14 Continuity and Dierentiability
So far we have been discussing functions that are dierentiable. What about
nondierentiable functions? How do we know when a function is not dier-
entiable?
A function fails to be dierentiable at a point if:
the point is a sharp corner point. In this case, the left-hand derivative and
the right-hand derivative are dierent and therefore the limit of the dierence
quotient does not exist.
The tangent line is vertical at the point since vertical lines have no slopes.
The function is discontinuous at a point. (See Theorem below.)
Example 14.1
Show that the function f(x) = |x| is not dierentiable at x = 0. This is an
example of a nondierentiable function at a corner point.
Solution.
f

(0) would exist if the following limit exists and is equal to f

(0)
lim
h0
f(0 + h) f(0)
h
= lim
h0
|h|
h
.
According to Figure 8.3 of Section 8 of these notes, lim
h0

|h|
h
= 1 whereas
lim
h0
+
|h|
h
= 1. Thus, lim
h0
|h|
h
does not exist. This shows that f(x) is not
dierentiable at x = 0.
Example 14.2
Show that f(x) = x
1
3
is not dierentiable at x = 0. This is an example of a
nondierentiable function at a point where the tangent line is vertical.
Solution.
Figure 14.1 shows the graph of f(x).
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Figure 14.1
Notice that at x = 0 the tangent line is vertical. Looking at the dierence
quotient at x = 0 we nd
lim
h0
f(0 + h) f(0)
h
= lim
h0
h
1
3
h
= lim
h0
1
h
2
3
= .
Thus, f(x) has a vertical tangent at x = 0 and f

(0) does not exist.

Example 14.3
Show that the piecewise dened function
f(x) =

x + 1 if x 1
3x 1 if x > 1
is not dierentiable at x = 1. This shows an example of a nondierentiable
function at a sharp corner point.
Solution.
Finding the limit of the dierence quotient from both the left of 1 and the
right of 1 we obtain
lim
h0

1 + h + 1 2
h
= lim
h0

h
h
= 1
and
lim
h0
+
3 + 3h 1 2
h
= lim
h0
+
3h
h
= 3.
Thus,
lim
h0
f(1 + h) f(1)
h
does not exist and consequently, f

(1) does not exist.

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Example 14.4
f(x) =

x
2
+ 5 if x 2
x 2 if x > 2
is not dierentiable at x = 2. This shows an example of a nondierentiable
function at a point of discontinuity.
Solution.
Finding the left hand derivative we obtain
lim
h0

f(2+h)f(2)
h
= lim
h0

5(2+h)
2
(54)
h
= lim
h0
(h 4) = 4.
Similarly, the right hand derivative is
lim
h0
+
f(2+h)f(2)
h
= lim
h0
+
(2+h)21
h
= lim
h0
+
h1
h
= .
It follows that f

(2) does not exist.

Now, if the graph of a function has a tangent line at a point, then we would
expect to draw the graph continuously (without the pencil leaving the pa-
per) near the point. This suggests that a dierentiable function at a point
is continuous at that point. We state this result as a theorem and then we
provide a proof.
Theorem 14.1
If a function f(x) is dierentiable at x = a then it is continuous there.
Proof.
Since f

(a) exists, we have

lim
xa
f(x) f(a)
x a
= f

(a).
Thus,
lim
xa
[f(x) f(a)] = lim
xa

f(x)f(a)
xa

(x a) = f

(a) 0 = 0
That is, lim
xa
f(x) = f(a) and this shows that f is continuous at x = a.
Remark 14.1
According to Example 14.3, a continuous function need not be dierentiable.
That is, the converse of the above theorem is not true in general. So be
careful not to consider all continuous functions to be dierentiable.
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