# Math Help - prove that T is closed.

1. ## prove that T is closed.

Suppose f: [a,b] -> R and g: [a,b]-> R are both continuous. Let T={x: f(x)=g(x)}. Prove that T is closed.

2. Originally Posted by tn11631
Suppose f: [a,b] -> R and g: [a,b]-> R are both continuous. Let T={x: f(x)=g(x)}. Prove that T is closed.

Suppose $x_0\in [0,1]\setminus T\Longrightarrow f(x_0)-g(x_0)=c\neq 0 \Longrightarrow$ since [/tex]f(x)=g(x)[/tex] is continuous on $[0,1]$ we get that there exists $\epsilon > 0$ s.t.

$f(x)-g(x)\neq 0\,\,\,\forall\,x\in I_\epsilon:=(x_0-\epsilon,x_0+\epsilon)\Longrightarrow I_\epsilon\subset [0,1]\setminus T$ $\Longrightarrow [0,1]\setminus T$ is open ...

Tonio

3. Originally Posted by tn11631
Suppose f: [a,b] -> R and g: [a,b]-> R are both continuous. Let T={x: f(x)=g(x)}. Prove that T is closed.
Here is a second way.
Suppose that $\left( {t_n } \right)$ is a sequence of points in $T$.
If $\left( {t_n } \right) \to z$ then showing that $z\in T$ we have done the problem.

4. Originally Posted by tonio
Suppose $x_0\in [0,1]\setminus T\Longrightarrow f(x_0)-g(x_0)=c\neq 0 \Longrightarrow$ since [/tex]f(x)=g(x)[/tex] is continuous on $[0,1]$ we get that there exists $\epsilon > 0$ s.t.

$f(x)-g(x)\neq 0\,\,\,\forall\,x\in I_\epsilon:=(x_0-\epsilon,x_0+\epsilon)\Longrightarrow I_\epsilon\subset [0,1]\setminus T$ $\Longrightarrow [0,1]\setminus T$ is open ...

Tonio
Sorry I just want to clarify symbols. Where you have \ were using the "a-b" right? looking at it in this box i see that it says setminus which is what i thought. and then do we have to show that f(x)=g(x) is continuous on [0,1]?

5. I think the second way is a bit easier to do...

Since both f and g are continuous, you know that for a sequence $\{ x_n \}$ such that $x_n \rightarrow x_0$, we have $f(x_n) \rightarrow f(x_0) , g(x_n) \rightarrow g(x_0)$.

Now, think about this, if the sequence $x_n$ is from T, then we should have $f(x_n) = g(x_n)$, right? Well, you just need to prove that $x_0$ is also in T. In other words, you need something like $f(x_0)=g(x_0)$, which is true, but why?

6. Originally Posted by tn11631
Suppose f: [a,b] -> R and g: [a,b]-> R are both continuous. Let T={x: f(x)=g(x)}. Prove that T is closed.
More generally the follow works whenever the codomain is Hausdorff.

Consider that $A(f,g)=\left\{x\in[a,b]:f(x)=g(x)\right\}=\varphi^{-1}(\Delta)$ where $\Delta$ is the diagonal and $\varphi:[a,b]\mapsto\mathbb{R}\times\mathbb{R}$ given by $x\mapsto(f(x),g(x))$

7. T is the inverse image of {0} (a closed set in R) under f-g (a continuous map).

8. As a note of interest this shows that if $A(f,g)$ contains a dense subset of $\text{Dom }f$ then $f=g$