CONTINUITY and DIFFERENTIATION

CONTINUITY
1. A real valued function function f(x) is continuous at a point a
in its domain iff lim f (x) = f (a)
Xa
i.e. the limit of the function at x = a is equal to the value of the
function at x = a.
2. A function f (x) is said to be continuous if it is continuous at
every point of its domain.
3. Sum, difference, product and quotient of continuous functions
are continuous i.e, if f (x) and g (x) are continuous functions on
their common domain, then
f g, fg, f/g, kf (k is a constant)
are continuous.
4. Let f and g be real functions such that fog is defined. If g is
continuous at x = a and f is continuous at g (a), then fog is
continuous at x = a.
5. Following functions are everywhere continuous.
i) A constant function
ii) The identity function
iii) A polynomial function
iv) Modulus function
v) Exponential function
vi) Sine and Cosine functions

6. Following functions are continuous in their domains.

i) A logarithmic function
ii) A rational function
iii) Tangent, cotangent, secant and cosecant functions.

7. If f is continuous function, then |f| and 1/f are continuous in

their domains.

8. Sin-1x, cos-1 x, tan-1 x, cot-1 x, cosec-1 x and sec-1 x are

continuous functions on their respective domains.

DIFFERENTIATION
1. A real valued function f (x) defined on (a, b) is said to be
differentiable at x = c (a, b), iff
Lim f (x) f (c ) exists finitely.
xc xc
=

Lim f (x) f (c ) = Lim f (x) f (c )

x c- x c
h c+
xc

= Lim
h0

f (c - h) f (c ) = Lim
-h
h0

f (c + h) f (c ) =
h

(LHD at x = c) = (RHD at x = c)
2. A function is said to be differential, if it is differentiable at
every point in its domain.
3. Every differentiable function is continuous but, the converse is
not necessarily true.
4. Following are some results on differentiability:
i) Every polynomial function is differentiable at each x R.
ii) The exponential function ax, a > 0, a q is differentiable at
each x R.
iii) Every constant function is differentiable at each x R.
iv) The logarithmic function is differentiable at each point in its
domain.
v) Trigonometric and inverse-trigonometric functions are
differentiable in their respective domains.
vi) The sum, difference, product and quotient of two
differentiable functions is differentiable.
vii) The composition of differentiable function is a differentiable
function.
viii) If a function f (x) is differentiable at every point in its
domain, then
= Lim
h0

f (x + h) f (x ) = Lim
h
h0

f (x - h) f (x )
-h

Is called the derivative or differentiation of at x and is denoted by f

(x) or d/dx (f(x)).

TYPE I
ON TESTING THE CONYINUITY OF A FUNCTION IN ITS DOMAIN
EXAMPLE 1 If a function f is defined as f(x) = |x-4|, x 4
x-4
Show that f is everywhere continuous except at x = 4
SOLUTION We have,
f (x) =
|x-4|, x 4
x-4
0,

x=4

-(x-4) = -1 ;
x-4
f(x) =

x<4

x-4 = 1
x-4

x>4

x=4

|x-4| =

-(x-4), x < 4
x -4, x 4

When x < 4 we have f(x) = -1, which, being a constant function, is

continuous at each point x < 4.
Also, when x > 4, we have f(x) = 1, which, being a constant function,
is continuous at each point x > 4.
Let us consider the point x = 4