# 1 quick confirmation

Homework Helper
Gold Member
My textbook always says things like "[...] such that f is invertible, continuous, and f^-1 is continuous also" and " [...] such that g is invertible, smooth, and g^-1 is smooth also"

But doesn't it follow from "f is conitnuous" that "f^-1 is continuous", and same thing for smooth?

StatusX
Homework Helper
No. The standard counterexample is the map from [0,2pi) to the circle (the natural one), which is a bijection, and is continuous since, roughly speaking, small changes in x give small changes in f(x). But in the circle, a small change about f(0) gives a very large change in the inverse image, which will suddenly jimp from just above 0 to just below 2pi.

There are theorems that the continuity of f^-1 follows from that of f under certain additional assumptions, like if the domain is compact and the range is Hausdorff, as is the case, for example, with all functions from a closed interval to R, ie, the functions you usually graph.

matt grime