Let's define f as a continuous function with f : [ 0 ; 2 ] &#x2192;<!

aligass2004yi

aligass2004yi

Answered question

2022-07-01

Let's define f as a continuous function with f : [ 0 ; 2 ] R and f ( 0 ) = f ( 2 ).

Now, I want to show that:
x 0 [ 0 ; 1 ] : f ( x 0 ) = f ( x 0 + 1 )
I tried to plot a few functions in order to construct a counterexample, but it seems that this statement really is true.

Unfortunately, I don't think I'm entirely sure why this works, yet. My current guess is that it has something to do with the Intermediate Value Theorem, as f is continuous. In other words: If our function value 'goes up', it'll have to 'come back down' eventually (and vice versa), since it still needs to fulfill f ( 0 ) = f ( 2 ).

Can someone help me prove this statement?

Answer & Explanation

humbast2

humbast2

Beginner2022-07-02Added 21 answers

Consider the following function on [0,1],
g ( x ) = f ( x + 1 ) f ( x )
where we assume f ( 0 ) = f ( 2 ). We'd like to show there is some x 0 [ 0 , 1 ] such that g ( x 0 ) = 0. So if we can show g ( x ) > 0 on some interval and g ( x ) < 0 somewhere as well, since g ( x ) is continuous it must pass 0. This is the context of the intermediate value theorem. So let's consider x=0 and 1, we see that
g ( 0 ) = f ( 1 ) f ( 0 ) & g ( 1 ) = f ( 2 ) f ( 1 ) = f ( 0 ) f ( 1 ) = g ( 0 )
Thus we see that g ( x ) does indeed change sign. So by the intermediate value theorem we know that it must be zero somewhere.
Feinsn

Feinsn

Beginner2022-07-03Added 8 answers

Define
g ( x ) = f ( x ) f ( x + 1 )
for x in [0,1] then you have that in 0 is positive but in 1 is negative and then by the MVT is done.

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