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dwattttt12/05/20241 replyview on HN

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_discontinu... is responsive and quite accessible. It notes that there doesn't have to be an undefined point for a function to be discontinuous (and that terminology often conflates the two), and matches what I recall of determining that if the limit of the derivative from both sides of the discontinuity exists and is equal, the derivative exists.


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bikenaga12/05/2024

> ... there doesn't have to be an undefined point for a function to be discontinuous.

That's right. In the example f(x) = (x² - 1)/(x - 1) for x ≠ 1, if we further define f(1) = 0, the function is now defined at x = 1, but discontinuous there.

> ... if the limit of the derivative from both sides of the discontinuity exists and is equal, the derivative exists.

(You probably mean "both sides of the point", since if there's a discontinuity there the derivative can't exist.) Your point that, if the left and right-hand limits both exist and are equal, then the derivative exists (and equals their common value) is true for all limits.

Also, there's a difference between the use of the word "continuous" in calc courses and in topology. In calc courses where functions tend to take real numbers to real numbers, a function may be said to be "not continuous" at a point where it isn't defined. So f(x) = 1/(x - 2) is "not continuous at 2". But in topology, you only consider continuity for points in the domain of the function. So since the (natural) domain of f(x) = 1/(x - 2) is x ≠ 2, the function is continuous everywhere (that it's defined).

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