Nested interval property
If satisfy for all and , then the intersection contains exactly one point.
Proposition 1.16 (Nested Interval Property)
Take a sequence of nested closed intervals in : , where .
If as , then contains exactly one point.
Proof
Nesting gives and , with throughout. So is increasing and bounded above by , and is decreasing and bounded below by ; both converge. Let and . Since limits preserve inequalities, .
Existence: for all , , so ; letting gives for every fixed . Hence .
Uniqueness: by construction, while ; since limits are unique, , so the intersection is the single point : indeed means for all , which forces .
Related
Stated in
- Proposition 1.16 (Nested Interval Property)ยง1.2 Bolzano-Weierstrass Theorem
