Derivative of differentiable function need not be continuous

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Revision as of 21:55, 20 April 2012 by Vipul (talk | contribs) (→‎Proof)

Statement

It is possible to have a function f defined for real numbers such that f is a differentiable function everywhere on its domain but the derivative f is not a continuous function.

Equivalently, a differentiable function on the real numbers need not be a continuously differentiable function.

Proof

Example with an isolated discontinuity

Consider the function:

f(x):={x2sin(1/x),x00,x=0

Then, we have:

f(x)={2xsin(1/x)cos(1/x)x00,x=0

In particular, we note that f(0)=0 but limx0f(x) does not exist. Thus, f is not a continuous function at 0.

For details, see square times sine of reciprocal function#First derivative.

The video below covers this example.

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