数学分析第五课(关于实数的4个定理)

We will introduce four theorems in $\mathbb{R}$, and they are such
obvious that you even don’t realise that they need proofs.

Theorem 1: If $x\in \mathbb{R},y\in \mathbb{R}$ and $x>0$, then
there is a positive integer $n$ such that $$nx>y.$$

Proof. Let $A$ be the set of all $nx$, If this theorem were false,
then $y$ would be an upper bound of $A$. According to the least greatest
property of $\mathbb{R}$, we have that there exists an $\alpha$ such
that $$\alpha =\sup A.$$ Since $x>0$, $\alpha -x<\alpha$, and $\alpha -x$
is not an upper bound of $A$. Hence $\alpha -x<mx$ for some positive
integer $m$. However, $\alpha <(m+1)x\in A$, which is imposible, since
$\alpha$ is an upper bound of $A$.
Theorem 2: If $x\in \mathbb{R},y\in \mathbb{R}$, and $x<y$, then
there exists a $p\in Q$ such that $$x<p<y.$$

Proof. We give a proof that is bottom up. In order to find a
$p\in \mathbb{Q}$ that satisfies $x<p<y$, we need to find a
$p=\frac{m}{n}\in \mathbb{Q},m,n\in \mathbb{Z}$. Let $n>0$(Without loss
of generality), then we have $$x<\frac{m}{n}<y\to nx<m<ny.$$

If there always exists an integer between $nx$ and $ny$, then
$ny-nx>1\to n(y-x)>1$. According theorem 1 and $y-x>0$, we are
able to find some integer $n>0$ such that $n(y-x)>1$. This proveds
theorem 2.
Theorem 3: For every real $x>0$ and every integer $n>0$ there is one
and only one positive real $y$ such that $$y^n=x.$$ Proof.

• Since $0<y_1<y_2$ implies $y_1^n<y_2^n$, there is at most one such
  $y$ that satisfies $y^n=x$ if it exists.

• Let $E$ be the set consisting of all positive real numbers $t$ such
  that $$t^n<x.$$ We are going to prove that $E$ is not empty and
  bounded uppon. Let $t=x/(1+x)<x$.Hence
  $0⩽t<1$,$t^n<t<x$,and $E$ is not empty. Let $t>1+x$. Thus
  $t^2>t>x$ indicates that $t\notin E$, which means that $t=1+x$ is an
  upper bound of $E$. Let $$y=\sup E.$$

• We claim that $y^n=x$. The following content is about the proof of
  this claim. We prove this claim by two steps. Firstly, assume
  $y^n<x$. we will find that there exits $t>y$, $t\in E$. Secondly,
  assume $y^n>x$. we can also find that there exist $t<y$,
  $t\notin E$. These two different settings indicate that $y$ cannot
  be the upper bound of $E$ which contradicts these two assumptions.
  Before we dive into the proof, we have to look at a lemma which will
  facilitate us.
  Lemma: $b^n-a^n=(b-a)(b^{n-1}+b^{n-2}a+\cdots +a^{n-1})$ yields
  the inequality $$b^n-a^n<(b-a)n{b}^{n-1}$$ when $0<a<b$.
  Why do we need this lemma? We are going to explain it later. First
  thing first, let $y^n<x$. We have to find some $t>y$ such that
  $t^n<x$. It means that $$t^n-y^n<x-y^n$$ Lemma 1 tells us that
  $$t^n-y^n<(t-y)n{t}^{n-1}$$ This is why we need lemma 1. If we can
  find a $t\in E$ satisfies $$(t-y)n{t}^{n-1}<x-y^n$$ ,we prove that $y$
  is not an upper bound of $E$.Without loss generality, let
  $t=y+h,1>h>0$. Thus $$hn(y+h{)}^{n-1}<hn(y+1{)}^{n-1}.$$ In order to
  get $hn(y+1{)}^{n-1}<x-y^n$, we have to set
  $$h<\frac{x-y^n}{n(y+1{)}^{n-1}}.$$ Reversely, if
  $h<\frac{x-y^n}{n(y+1{)}^{n-1}}$, then $t=y+h\in E$. Hence $y$ is not
  an uppper bound of $E$. This contradicts the assumption that
  $y=\sup E$. Similarly, we can use the same strategy to prove that
  there exists $t<y,t\notin E$ when $y^n>x$. Thus $y$ cannot be the
  upper bound of $E$, which contradicts the assumption of $y=\sup E$.
  These two steps yield that $y^n>x$ or $y^n<x$ are not true. Hence,
  $y^n=x$ is the only acceptable result.

Theorem 4: If $a$ and $b$ are positive real numbers and $n$ is a
postive integer, then $$(ab{)}^{1/n}=a^{1/n}{b}^{1/n}.$$ Proof. Put
$\alpha =a^{1/n},\beta =b^{1/n}$. Because multiplication is commutative,
we have that $$ab={\alpha }^n{\beta }^n=(\alpha \beta {)}^n.$$ The uniqueness
assertion of Theorem 3 shows therefore that
$$(ab{)}^{1/n}=\alpha \beta =a^{1/n}{b}^{1/n}.$$