If a sequence is eventually bounded then it is bounded

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Homework Statement



Hi, I've been solving Calculus Deconstructed by Nitecki and I've been confused by a particular lemma in the book. Namely:

If a sequence is eventually bounded, then it is bounded:
that is, to show that a sequence is bounded, we need only find a number
γ ∈ R such that the inequality

|x_i| < \gamma \ \text{holds for all i ≥ K, for some K}

Homework Equations


3. The Attempt at a Solution
[/B]
However if we consider the sequence ##\tan {\frac{\pi}{n}} ##, with n starting at 1. For terms when n is very high, we can find some value for ##\gamma## for which the condition holds and thus the sequence is bounded (according to the lemma). Yet at n=1, ##\tan {\frac{\pi}{n}} = \infty##, so the sequence cannot be bounded.

My questions are:

1. Is my reasoning at all correct in the first place ?

2. It is easy to see that my sequence does have a lower bound but no upper bound, so does the lemma only refer to one bound (But doesn't bounded mean bounded in both directions?)

Thanks for reading!
 
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pixelate said:

Homework Statement



Hi, I've been solving Calculus Deconstructed by Nitecki and I've been confused by a particular lemma in the book. Namely:

If a sequence is eventually bounded, then it is bounded:
that is, to show that a sequence is bounded, we need only find a number
γ ∈ R such that the inequality

|x_i| < \gamma \ \text{holds for all i ≥ K, for some K}

Homework Equations


3. The Attempt at a Solution
[/B]
However if we consider the sequence ##\tan {\frac{\pi}{n}} ##, with n starting at 1. For terms when n is very high, we can find some value for ##\gamma## for which the condition holds and thus the sequence is bounded (according to the lemma). Yet at n=1, ##\tan {\frac{\pi}{n}} = \infty##, so the sequence cannot be bounded.

My questions are:

1. Is my reasoning at all correct in the first place ?

2. It is easy to see that my sequence does have a lower bound but no upper bound, so does the lemma only refer to one bound (But doesn't bounded mean bounded in both directions?)

Thanks for reading!

You don't have a valid sequence, so that is not a counterexample to anything.

Anyway, at ##n = 1## we have ##\tan(\pi) = 0##, so that is OK. The trouble occurs at ##n = 2##.

But, I say it again: you don't have a valid sequence of real numbers with this example.
 
Ray Vickson said:
But, I say it again: you don't have a valid sequence of real numbers with this example.

.Oh I see, that's very illuminating thank you. Of course at n=2, the the element of the sequence is undefined and it is not infinite at all. I feel silly for making such a basic mistake now.
 
There are two things I don't understand about this problem. First, when finding the nth root of a number, there should in theory be n solutions. However, the formula produces n+1 roots. Here is how. The first root is simply ##\left(r\right)^{\left(\frac{1}{n}\right)}##. Then you multiply this first root by n additional expressions given by the formula, as you go through k=0,1,...n-1. So you end up with n+1 roots, which cannot be correct. Let me illustrate what I mean. For this...
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