Understanding Analysis cover

Understanding Analysis

by Stephen Abbott

Introduction to the Problems in Analysis outlines an elementary, one semester course which exposes students to both the process of rigor, and the rewards inherent in taking an axiomatic approach to the study of functions of a real variable. The aim of a course in real analysis should be to challenge and improve mathematical intuition rather than to verify it. The philosophy of this book is to focus attention on questions which give analysis its inherent fascination. Does the Cantor set contain any irrational numbers? Can the set of points where a function is discontinuous be arbitrary? Can the rational numbers be written as a countable intersection of open sets? Is an infinitely differentiable function necessarily the limit of its Taylor series? Giving these topics center stage, the motivation for a rigorous approach is justified by the fact that they are inaccessible without it.

Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?