- #1
member 587159
Homework Statement
Show, using the axiom of completeness of ##\mathbb{R}##, that every positive real number has a unique n'th root that is a positive real number.
Or in symbols:
##n \in \mathbb{N_0}, a \in \mathbb{R^{+}} \Rightarrow \exists! x \in \mathbb{R^{+}}: x^n = a##
Homework Equations
Axiom of completeness:
Suppose ##I_n = [x_n,y_n]## is a sequence of closed intervals and they are nested such that:
##I_1 \supset I_2 \supset \dots \ I_n \dots##.
Then, there exists at least one number x, for which:
##x \in \bigcap\limits_{n=0}^{\infty} I_n##
The Attempt at a Solution
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My textbook says that I can prove it as an application of the axiom of completeness. But it doesn't ask to proof this as an exercise, so I'm not sure whether I have covered enough to proof this problem.
So, I thought of a proof by contradiction. So, suppose that there are ##2## different numbers ##y,z \in \mathbb{R}##, for which: ##y^n = a## and ##z^n = a##. Then I wanted to take them as bounds in ##[x_n, y_n]##, and somehow show that this interval only contains 1 element, but it seems that that's not the correct approach. Any hints in the right direction will be appreciated.
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