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Math and science::Analysis::Tao::06. Limits of sequences

Uniqueness of convergence, proposition

Let \( (a_n)_{n=m}^{\infty} \) be a sequence of reals, and let \( L \ne L' \) be two distinct real numbers. Then \( (a_n)_{n=m}^{\infty} \) cannot converge to [...].

Proof
If \( L \ne L' \), then there exists a positive real \( d = dist(L, L') = | L - L'| \). As \( (a_n)_{n=m}^{\infty} \) converges to \( L \), we can choose a real \( 0 < \varepsilon < \frac{d}{3} \) and there exists an integer \( N_1 > m \) such that \( (a_n)_{n=N_1}^{\infty} \) is [...] \( L \). Similarly, for \( L' \) for the same \( \varepsilon \), there. exists an integer \( N_2 > m \) such that \( (a_n)_{n=N_2}^{\infty} \) is [...] \( L' \). Thus, there exists an \( M = \max(N_1, N_2) \) (or just \( M = N_1 + N_2 \), if you don't want to use \( \max \)), such that \( a_k \) is [...] for all \( k \ge M \). As we have both \( dist(a_k, L) \le \varepsilon \) and \( dist(a_k, L') \le \varepsilon \), this implies, by the [...], that \( dist(L, L') \le 2\varepsilon = \frac{2}{3} dist(L, L') \), which is a false statement, as the distance is always positive. Thus, it cannot be true that \( (a_n)_{n=m}^{\infty} \) converges to both \( L \) and \( L' \).