Lec 17: Types of discontinuities

MATH 147 Section 2, Fall Term 2022

I (We will first finish the material from Lecture 16)

I Removable discontinuities
I Jump discontinuities
I Essential discontinuities

Key references: Sec 5.9 of Thomson et al.

Removable discontinuities

Example

1, if x = 0,
Let f : R → R be defined by f (x) =
0, otherwise.

This function is discontinuous at x = 0 and continuous everywhere else.

This kind of discontinuity is called a removable discontinuity because the discontinuous behaviour can be
removed by changing the function value at a point (in this example, define f (0) = 0).
The characteristic feature of a removable discontinuity at x0 ∈ dom(f ) is that lim f (x) exists but is not equal
x→x0
to f (x0 ).
Jump discontinuities

Example

0, if x < 0,
The Heaviside function is defined by H(x) =
1, otherwise.

This is discontinuous at x = 0 and continuous everywhere else. It is not a removable discontinuity.

No matter how you define f (0), it will be discontinuous because lim f (x) does not exist.
x→0

Notice, however, that the two one-sided limits do exist at 0 (and are unequal). This is the defining feature of a
jump discontinuity at 0.
Piecewise continuous functions

A function defined on an interval is piecewise continuous if every finite subinterval contains a finite number of
discontinuous points and the only kind of discontinuities that occur are jump discontinuities.

Example
The ceiling function d·e is piecewise continuous.

Note: Sometimes piecewise continuity is defined to allow removable discontinuities as well, and sometimes
piecewise continuity is defined so that only a finite number of discontinuities is allowed. The latter would mean
that the ceiling function is not piecewise continuous since there are an infinite number of jumps.
Essential discontinuities

Example

0, if x = 0,
Let f : R → R be defined by f (x) =
1/|x|, otherwise.

This function is discontinuous at x = 0 and continuous everywhere else.

This is not a removable discontinuity or a jump discontinuity.

This is an example of an essential discontinuity, which is where at least one of the one-sided limits does not
exist. (It may or may not have an infinite one-sided limit.)
Thomae’s function

Here is a very strange example. Let f : R → R be defined by


0, if x ∈
/ Q,
f (x) =
1/q, if x = p/q in lowest terms, with q > 0.

Here, “x = p/q in lowest terms” means that p and q have no common factors other than 1.
It can be shown that limx→x0 f (x) = 0 at every point x0 ∈ R, f is continuous at every irrational point and has a
removable discontinuity at every rational point.
See graph here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomae%27s_function
It is called the Dirichlet Function in Section 5.2.6 of Thomson et al.