Given that f (x) and g(x) are continuous at x = a show that the product f (x)g(x) is continuous

at x = a.
We will need to use the definition of continuity to show that, given any  > 0 it will always be
possible to find a such that for all |x a| < we have
|f (x)g(x) f (a)g(a)| < .

(1)

Now since the definition of continuity uses the quantities |f (x) f (a)| and |g(x) g(a)| we
will artificially introduce them by applying an identity:
|f (x)g(x) f (a)g(a)| = |f (x) (g(x) g(a)) + g(a) (f (x) f (a))|

(2)

This identity is not blindingly obvious and consists of adding f (x)g(a) and then immediately
subtracting it between the two terms. We now apply the triangle inequality to deduce
|f (x)g(x) f (a)g(a)| |f (x)| |g(x) g(a)| + |g(a)| |f (x) f (a)|

(3)

Remember our task is to show that we can always make the left hand side less than . We shall
do so by showing that we can always find a such that for all |x a| < each term on the
right hand side is less than 21 . This will mean we have to examine each term and figure out
just how small needs to be.
Well do the second one first because it is easier! It goes like this: given that we know f (x) is
continuous at x = a we know that we can always find a 1 such that for all |x a| < 1 we have
|f (x) f (a)| <


2 |g(a)|

(4)

which shows that for all |x a| < 1 the second term in (3) is less than 21 . So our eventual
will need to be smaller than 1 .
The first term is more tricky because of the |f (x)| which is not constant within a finite region
about x = a we want our eventual to be independent of x after all. To proceed we will find
a bound on the size of |f (x)| for x close to a. Specifically we will consider the continuity of
f (x) which tells us that I can always find a 2 such that
|f (x) f (a)| < 1

(5)

for all |x a| < 2 , which follows by putting the arbitrary number  in the definition of
continuity equal to 1. The triangle inequality then shows that |f (x)| 1 + |f (a)| as follows:
|f (x)| |f (a) + (f (x) f (a))| |f (a)| + |f (x) f (a)| < |f (a)| + 1.

(6)

This achieves our wish of finding a bound for |f (x)| in a region of size 2 about x = a.
We now use this to deal with the first term of (3). Because of the above we know that as long
as we choose our to be less than 2 the first term is less than
(1 + |f (a)|) |g(x) g(a)| .

(7)

We use the continuity of g(x) to show than we can always make this less than 21 . Since g(x)
is continuous at x = a we can always find a 3 such that for all |x a| < 3 we have
|g(x) g(a)| <
1


2 (1 + |f (a)|)

(8)

which you can check will hold the first term less than 12 .
To put this all together we make sure that we satisfy all of the above criteria. In other words
we can now double check that if we set < min {1 , 2 , 3 } we ensure that each of the terms in
(3) is less than 12  which in turn implies that
|f (x)g(x) f (a)g(a)| < , |x a| <

(9)

which proves that the product is continuous at x = a.

Given that f (x) is continuous at x = a show that
f (x) 6= 0.

1
f (x)

is continuous at x = a as long as

We start in the same way by considering



 1

1


 f (x) f (a) 

(10)

and demonstrating that we can always find a such that it is less than  for all |x a| < .
Simple manipulations turn the modulus into
|f (x) f (a)|
|f (x)| |f (a)|

(11)

where we recognise that we will be able to use the continuity of f (x) to help us with the top and
worry once again about the appearance of the f (x) on the bottom. To remove this awkward
factor we will again find a bound for f (x), but since it appears on the bottom this time we
want to get a lower bound we want to show that for some region close to x = a we can show
that f (x) is bigger than some fixed number. To proceed we consider the continuity of f (x) and
this time choose (following Danny) the  in the definition to be 21 |f (a)|. This is because we
would learn that we can always find a 1 such that for |x a| < 1
1
|f (a)|
2
which I can use with the triangle inequality to show
|f (x) f (a)| <

|f (a)| |f (x) + (f (a) f (x))| |f (x)| + |f (a) f (x)| < |f (x)| +

(12)

1
|f (a)| .
2

(13)

from which I can deduce that |f (x)| > 12 |f (a)| for all |x a| < 1 .
We use this to bound (11) by stating that for all |x a| < 1 we have
|f (x) f (a)|
|f (x) f (a)|
<2
|f (x)| |f (a)|
|f (a)|2

(14)

and were now good to finish off. The continuity of f (x) implies that we can always find a 2
such that for all |x a| < 2 it holds that
 |f (a)|2
|f (x) f (a)| <
2

(15)

so that for |x a| < 2 the right hand side above is less than . Thus if we take < min {1 , 2 }
you can check that we do indeed have


 1
1 

(16)
 f (x) f (a)  < , |x a| <
which proves the reciprocal is continuous at x = a.
2