First Course in Real Analysis (eBook)

The first course in analysis which follows elementary calculus is a critical one for students who are seriously interested in mathematics. Traditional advanced calculus was precisely what its name indicates-a course with topics in calculus emphasizing problem solving rather than theory. As a result students were often given a misleading impression of what mathematics is all about; on the other hand the current approach, with its emphasis on theory, gives the student insight in the fundamentals of analysis. In A First Course in Real Analysis we present a theoretical basis of analysis which is suitable for students who have just completed a course in elementary calculus. Since the sixteen chapters contain more than enough analysis for a one year course, the instructor teaching a one or two quarter or a one semester junior level course should easily find those topics which he or she thinks students should have. The first Chapter, on the real number system, serves two purposes. Because most students entering this course have had no experience in devising proofs of theorems, it provides an opportunity to develop facility in theorem proving. Although the elementary processes of numbers are familiar to most students, greater understanding of these processes is acquired by those who work the problems in Chapter 1. As a second purpose, we provide, for those instructors who wish to give a comprehen- sive course in analysis, a fairly complete treatment of the real number system including a section on mathematical induction.