Exercise 112Calculus › Single-variable calculus › Continuity › Continuous and discontinuous functionsL1Added 2 Nov 2026
The square root: uniformly continuous, not Lipschitz
#uniform continuity#Lipschitz#square root
Statement
- Prove that for all .
- Deduce that is uniformly continuous on .
- Show that it is not Lipschitz on .
Hint
For part 1, assume and square the inequality .
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Solution
1. By symmetry assume . We want . Both sides are non-negative, so it is equivalent to the inequality of squares:
which is true. Hence , and the left side is .
2. Let and . If , then . The choice of does not depend on the point.
3. If were -Lipschitz on , then taking gives , i.e. for all . But as . Contradiction.
Remark. So Lipschitz is strictly stronger than uniformly continuous. The problem is the vertical tangent of the graph of at : the slope is unbounded, but the function still moves slowly enough that works.