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Why is mere increase in the number of partition pieces insufficient for convergence?

Increasing the number of pieces does not guarantee that the width of each piece shrinks to zero. If some pieces remain wide, the approximation error in those regions persists, preventing the Riemann sum from converging to the exact integral.

Conditions

  • The partition is refined by adding more pieces.
  • The maximum width of the partition does not necessarily tend to zero.

Reasoning, step by step

  1. Consider a partition with many pieces but one very wide piece.
  2. Observe that the rectangle over the wide piece has a large approximation error.
  3. Conclude that the total sum retains this error.
  4. Contrast with a partition where the maximum width tends to zero.

Example

The script states: 'The maximum width is essential: merely increasing the number of pieces is not enough.'

Common misconceptions

  • Believing that n→∞n \to \infty implies mesh → 0.
  • Thinking that uniform partitions are the only way to converge.
  • Ignoring the distribution of subinterval widths.

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