Maths encyclopedia and lessons  
Search

Mathematics Encyclopedia and Lessons

 
     
 

Lessons

Popular
Subjects

algebra
arithmetic
calculus
equations
geometry
differential equations
trigonometry
number theory
probability theory
more
 

References

applied mathematics
mathematical games
mathematicians
more
 
 

Uniform norm

In mathematical analysis, the uniform norm assigns to real- or complex-valued functions f the nonnegative number

\|f\|_\infty=\sup\left\{\,\left|f(x)\right|:x\in\mbox{domain}\ \mbox{of}\ f\,\right\}.

This norm is also called the supremum norm or the Chebyshev norm. If f is a continuous function on a closed interval, or more generally a compact set, then the supremum in the above definition is attained by the Weierstrass extreme value theorem, so we can replace the supremum by the maximum. In this case, the norm is also called the maximum norm.

The occasion for the subscript "∞" is that

\lim_{p\rightarrow\infty}\|f\|_p=\|f\|_\infty,

where

\|f\|_p=\left(\int_D \left|f\right|^p\right)^{1/p}

where D is the domain of f.

The binary function

d(f,g)=\|f-g\|_\infty

is then a metric on the space of all bounded functions on a particular domain. A sequence { fn : n = 1, 2, 3, ... } converges uniformly to a function f if and only if

\lim_{n\rightarrow\infty}\|f_n-f\|_\infty=0.

For complex continuous functions over a compact space, this turns it into a C* algebra.

01-04-2007 01:18:14
The contents of this article are licensed from Wikipedia.org
under the GNU Free Documentation License. How to see transparent copy