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Mathematical Analysis

Section 6.3 Bounded Variation

Definition 6.33. Bounded Variation.

Given \(f:[a,b]\rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) and a partition \(P\text{,}\) define
\begin{equation*} V(f,P)=\sum_{i=1}^n\left|{f(x_i)-f(x_{i-1})}\right|. \end{equation*}
Then define the variation of \(f\) over \([a,b]\) to be
\begin{equation*} V_{[a,b]}(f)=\sup\{{V(f,P)}\,:\,{P\in\mathcal{P}[a,b]}\}\in[0,\infty]. \end{equation*}
We say \(f\) has bounded variation if \(V_{[a,b]}(f)<\infty\text{.}\)

Convention 6.34.

Let \(\mathcal{BV}[a,b]\) be the set of all functions on \([a,b]\) with bounded variation.

Example 6.35.

A function not of bounded variation: \(\begin{cases} x\sin\left({\frac{\pi}{x}}\right) & x\neq 0\\ 0 & x=0 \end{cases}\)

Remark 6.36.

Functions of bounded variation are bounded. This can be shown directly, but also follows from a later result that all functions in \(\mathcal{BV}[a,b]\) are differences of increasing functions. This will also show \(\mathcal{BV}[a,b]\subseteq\mathcal{R}[a,b]\text{.}\)
There are differentiable functions on closed intervals which are not of bounded variation.

Example 6.41.

\begin{equation*} \begin{aligned} f:[0,1]&\rightarrow \mathbb{R}\\ f(x)&= \begin{cases} x^2\sin\left({\frac{1}{x^2}}\right) & x\neq 0\\ 0 & x=0 \end{cases}. \end{aligned} \end{equation*}
We'll soon show that every function of bounded variation is a difference of two increasing functions. First, we need the following result.