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Newtime
Nov2-09, 06:40 PM
The reason I'm posting this is because I just took an exam and this was one of the questions, and it was so easy I feel like I may have been completely overlooking a complicating factor:

-{bn} is a sequence of positive real numbers. prove that either it contains a convergent subsequence or converges to positive infinity.

proof.

two case: either the sequence is bounded or unbounded. if it is bounded, apply the bolzano-weirstrass theorem to conclude that it contains a convergent subsequence. if unbounded, by definition, the sequence goes to positive infinity.

qed

On the exam I used better notation and wording but that's it essentially. so what's the consensus...is this valid?

l'Hôpital
Nov2-09, 07:16 PM
lol nvm. Misread.

mathman
Nov2-09, 07:56 PM
The reason I'm posting this is because I just took an exam and this was one of the questions, and it was so easy I feel like I may have been completely overlooking a complicating factor:

-{bn} is a sequence of positive real numbers. prove that either it contains a convergent subsequence or converges to positive infinity.

proof.

two case: either the sequence is bounded or unbounded. if it is bounded, apply the bolzano-weirstrass theorem to conclude that it contains a convergent subsequence. if unbounded, by definition, the sequence goes to positive infinity.

qed

On the exam I used better notation and wording but that's it essentially. so what's the consensus...is this valid?

The unbounded case is more complicated. It might have a subsequence which "converges" to infinity, as well as another subsequence which is convergent to a finite number.