In mathematics, a nowhere continuousfunction, also called an everywhere discontinuous function, is a function that is not continuous at any point of its domain. If f is a function from real numbers to real numbers, then f(x) is nowhere continuous if for each point x there is an ε > 0 such that for each δ > 0 we can find a point y such that |x − y| < δ and |f(x) − f(y)| ≥ ε. The import of this statement is that no matter how close we get to any fixed point, there are nearby points at which the function takes not-nearby values.
More general definitions of this kind of function can be obtained, by replacing the absolute value by the distance function in a metric space, or the continuity definition by the definition of continuity in a topological space.
One example of such a function is the indicator function of the rational numbers. This function is written IQ and has domain and codomain both equal to the real numbers. IQ(x) equals 1 if x is a rational number and 0 if x is not rational. If we look at this function in the vicinity of some number y, there are two cases:
If y is rational, then f(y) = 1. To show the function is not continuous at y, we need find an ε such that no matter how small we choose δ, there will be points z within δ of y such that f(z) is not within ε of f(y) = 1. In fact, 1/2 is such an ε. Because the irrational numbers are dense in the reals, no matter what δ we choose we can always find an irrational z within δ of y, and f(z) = 0 is at least 1/2 away from 1.
If y is irrational, then f(y) = 0. Again, we can take ε = 1/2, and this time, because the rational numbers are dense in the reals, we can pick z to be a rational number as close to y as is required. Again, f(z) = 1 is more than 1/2 away from f(y) = 0.
In general, if E is any subset of a topological spaceX such that both E and the complement of E are dense in X, then the real-valued function which takes the value 1 on E and 0 on the complement of E will be nowhere continuous. Functions of this type were originally investigated by Dirichlet.
His family hailed from the town of Richelet in Belgium, from which his surname "Lejeune Dirichlet" ("le jeune de Richelet" = "the young chap from Richelet") was derived, and that was where his grandfather lived.
Dirichlet was born in Düren, where his father was the postmaster.
After his death, Dirichlet's lectures and other results in number theory were collected, edited and published by his friend and fellow mathematician Richard Dedekind under the title Vorlesungen über Zahlentheorie (Lectures on Number Theory).
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