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We were recently asked in class whether $f:X \to \mathbb{R}$ with $f'\equiv 0$ implies $f$ is constant.

Of course, if we take $X=(0,1)\cup (2,3)$ with $$f(x)=1\text{ when } x\in (0,1)$$ $$f(x)=2\text { when } x \in (2,3)$$

I could work out through this. Then I thought whether taking $X=[0,1]\cup [2,3]$ would yield the same result. I am confused whether $f'(1)$ would be $0$ or not, since of course right hand limit does not exist.

mrf
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1 Answers1

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It's not usually (ever?) useful to define derivatives on points that aren't in the interior of an open set. In fact it's discourageable to do so via one-sided limits, because a function could then be differentiable at $a$ over $[a,b]$, but not on $[a-\varepsilon,b]$ (for instance the absolute value function on $[0,1]$). See this question and its answers for some discussion.

With this in mind, the answer to your question is that $f'(1)$ could be $0$ if you want it to be, but this definition of derivative at a point isn't meaningful so there's no reason to consider the point $x = 1$ anyways (and besides you've already answered the question of whether $f' \equiv 0\implies f\equiv \mathrm{constant}$ with the example on open intervals).

GPerez
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