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ZixuanZhang
ZixuanZhang
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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 .

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