Continuous attains max/min on compact set

A continuous real-valued function on a compact set achieves a maximum and a minimum
Continuous attains max/min on compact set

Continuous attains max/min on compact set: Let KK be a and let f:KRf:K\to\mathbb{R} be a . Then there exist points xmin,xmaxKx_{\min},x_{\max}\in K such that f(xmin)f(x)f(xmax)f(x_{\min})\le f(x)\le f(x_{\max}) for all xKx\in K.

Equivalently, the subset f(K)Rf(K)\subseteq\mathbb{R} has both a and a . This can be seen by combining with basic order properties of compact subsets of R\mathbb{R}.