Interval (mathematics)

 ( Sets Of Real Numbers ) 

In mathematics, a real interval is the set of all lying between two fixed endpoints with no "gaps". Each endpoint is either a real number or positive or negative infinity, indicating the interval extends without a Bounded set. A real interval can contain neither endpoint, either endpoint, or both endpoints, excluding any endpoint which is infinite.

For example, the set of real numbers consisting of , , and all numbers in between is an interval, denoted and called the unit interval; the set of all positive real numbers is an interval, denoted ; the set of all real numbers is an interval, denoted ; and any single real number is an interval, denoted .

Intervals are ubiquitous in mathematical analysis. For example, they occur implicitly in the epsilon-delta definition of continuity; the intermediate value theorem asserts that the image of an interval by a continuous function is an interval; of are defined over an interval; etc.

Interval arithmetic consists of computing with intervals instead of real numbers for providing a guaranteed enclosure of the result of a numerical computation, even in the presence of uncertainties of input data and .

Intervals are likewise defined on an arbitrary total order set, such as integers or rational numbers. The notation of integer intervals is considered in the special section below.

---

Definitions and terminology An interval is a subset of the that contains all real numbers lying between any two numbers of the subset. In particular, the empty set $\backslash varnothing$ and the entire set of real numbers $\backslash R$ are both intervals.

The endpoints of an interval are its supremum, and its infimum, if they exist as real numbers.

If the infimum does not exist, one says often that the corresponding endpoint is $-\backslash infty.$ Similarly, if the supremum does not exist, one says that the corresponding endpoint is $+\backslash infty.$

Intervals are completely determined by their endpoints and whether each endpoint belong to the interval. This is a consequence of the least-upper-bound property of the real numbers. This characterization is used to specify intervals by means of , which is described below.

An does not include any endpoint, and is indicated with parentheses.

For example, is the interval of all real numbers greater than and less than . (This interval can also be denoted by , see below). The open interval consists of real numbers greater than , i.e., positive real numbers. The open intervals have thus one of the forms

$\backslash begin\{align\}$

(a,b)        &= \{x\in\mathbb R \mid a
\end{align}
where $a$ and $b$ are real numbers such that  In the last case, the resulting interval is the empty set and does not depend on . The open intervals are those intervals that are  for the usual topology on the real numbers.
     

A   is an interval that includes all its endpoints and is denoted with square brackets. For example,  means greater than or equal to  and less than or equal to . Closed intervals have one of the following forms in which  and  are real numbers such that 
     

     
$\backslash begin\{align\}$
     
     
 \;[a,b]        &= \{x\in\mathbb R \mid a\le x\le b\}, \\
\left(-\infty, b\right] &= \{x\in\mathbb R \mid x\le b\}, \\
\left[a, +\infty\right) &= \{x\in\mathbb R \mid a\le x\}, \\
(-\infty, +\infty) &= \R,\\
\left[a,a\right]&=\{a\}.
     
\end{align}
The closed intervals are those intervals that are  for the usual topology on the real numbers.
     

A   has two endpoints and includes only one of them. It is said  left-open or  right-open depending on whether the excluded endpoint is on the left or on the right. These intervals are denoted by mixing notations for open and closed intervals. For example,  means greater than  and less than or equal to , while  means greater than or equal to  and less than . The half-open intervals have the form
     

     
$\backslash begin\{align\}$
     
     
\left(a,b\right]       &= \{x\in\R \mid a
\end{align}
     

In summary, a set of the real numbers is an interval, if and only if it is an open interval, a closed interval, or a half-open interval. The only intervals that appear twice in the above classification are  and  that are both open and closed.
Terence Tao (2025). 9789811017896, Springer. . ISBN 9789811017896
 See Definition 9.1.1.
     

A   is any singleton set (i.e., an interval of the form ).
Harald Cramér (1999). 9780691005478, Princeton University Press. . ISBN 9780691005478
 Some authors include the empty set in this definition. A real interval that is neither empty nor degenerate is said to be  proper, and has infinitely many elements.
     

An interval is said to be  left-bounded or  right-bounded, if there is some real number that is, respectively, smaller than or larger than all its elements. An interval is said to be  bounded, if it is both left- and right-bounded; and is said to be  unbounded otherwise. Intervals that are bounded at only one end are said to be  half-bounded. The empty set is bounded, and the set of all reals is the only interval that is unbounded at both ends. Bounded intervals are also commonly known as  finite intervals.
     

Bounded intervals are , in the sense that their diameter (which is equal to the absolute difference between the endpoints) is finite.  The diameter may be called the  length,  width,  measure,  range, or  size of the interval. The size of unbounded intervals is usually defined as , and the size of the empty interval may be defined as  (or left undefined).
     

The  centre (midpoint) of a bounded interval with endpoints  and  is , and its  radius is the half-length . These concepts are undefined for empty or unbounded intervals.
     

An interval is said to be  left-open if and only if it contains no minimum (an element that is smaller than all other elements);  right-open if it contains no maximum; and  open if it contains neither. The interval , for example, is left-closed and right-open. The empty set and the set of all reals are both open and closed intervals, while the set of non-negative reals, is a closed interval that is right-open but not left-open. The open intervals are  of the real line in its standard topology, and form a base of the open sets.
     

An interval is said to be  left-closed if it has a minimum element or is left-unbounded,  right-closed if it has a maximum or is right unbounded; it is simply  closed if it is both left-closed and right closed. So, the closed intervals coincide with the  in that topology.
     

The  interior of an interval  is the largest open interval that is contained in ; it is also the set of points in  which are not endpoints of . The  closure of  is the smallest closed interval that contains ; which is also the set  augmented with its finite endpoints.
     

For any set  of real numbers, the  interval enclosure or  interval span of  is the unique interval that contains , and does not properly contain any other interval that also contains .
     

An interval  is a  subinterval of interval  if  is a subset of . An interval  is a  proper subinterval of  if  is a proper subset of .
     

However, there is conflicting terminology for the terms  segment and  interval, which have been employed in the literature in two essentially opposite ways, resulting in ambiguity when these terms are used. The  Encyclopedia of Mathematics defines  interval (without a qualifier) to exclude both endpoints (i.e., open interval) and  segment to include both endpoints (i.e., closed interval), while Rudin's  Principles of Mathematical Analysis
Walter Rudin (1976). 007054235X, McGraw-Hill. .  007054235X
 calls sets of the form  a,  intervals and sets of the form ( a,  b)  segments throughout. These terms tend to appear in older works; modern texts increasingly favor the term  interval (qualified by  open,  closed, or  half-open), regardless of whether endpoints are included.
     

 

 
 
  

  Notations for intervals
 
 

 
The interval of numbers between  and , including  and , is often denoted . The two numbers are called the  endpoints of the interval. In countries where numbers are written with a decimal comma, a semicolon may be used as a separator to avoid ambiguity.
     

 

 
 
  

  Including or excluding endpoints
 
 

 
To indicate that one of the endpoints is to be excluded from the set, the corresponding square bracket can be either replaced with a parenthesis, or reversed. Both notations are described in International standard ISO 31-11. Thus, in set builder notation,
     

     

     
$\backslash begin\{align\}$
     
(a,b) = \mathopen{]}a,b\mathclose{}
a,b)
(a,b] = \mathopen{]}a,b\mathclose{]} &= \{x\in\R \mid a
     

Each interval , , and  represents the empty set, whereas  denotes the singleton set }.  When , all four notations are usually taken to represent the empty set.
     

Both notations may overlap with other uses of parentheses and brackets in mathematics. For instance, the notation  is often used to denote an tuple in set theory, the coordinates of a point or vector in analytic geometry and linear algebra, or (sometimes) a complex number in algebra. That is why Nicolas Bourbaki introduced the notation  to denote the open interval. The notation  too is occasionally used for ordered pairs, especially in computer science.
     

Some authors such as Yves Tillé use  to denote the complement of the interval ; namely, the set of all real numbers that are either less than or equal to , or greater than or equal to .
     

 

 
 
  

  Infinite endpoints
 
 

 
In some contexts, an interval may be defined as a subset of the extended real numbers, the set of all real numbers augmented with  and .
     

In this interpretation, the notations  ,  ,  , and  are all meaningful and distinct. In particular,  denotes the set of all ordinary real numbers, while  denotes the extended reals.
     

Even in the context of the ordinary reals, one may use an infinite endpoint to indicate that there is no bound in that direction. For example,  is the set of positive real numbers, also written as $\backslash mathbb\{R\}\_+.$ The context affects some of the above definitions and terminology. For instance, the interval  = $\backslash R$ is closed in the realm of ordinary reals, but not in the realm of the extended reals.
     

 

 
 
  

  Integer intervals
 
 

 
When  and  are , the notation ⟦ a, b⟧, or  or } or just , is sometimes used to indicate the interval of all  integers between  and  included. The notation  is used in some programming languages; in Pascal, for example, it is used to formally define a subrange type, most frequently used to specify lower and upper bounds of valid Indexed family of an array.
     

Another way to interpret integer intervals are as sets defined by enumeration, using ellipsis notation.
     

An integer interval that has a finite lower or upper endpoint always includes that endpoint. Therefore, the exclusion of endpoints can be explicitly denoted by writing  ,   , or  .  Alternate-bracket notations like  or  are rarely used for integer intervals.
     

 

 
 
  

  Properties
 
 

 
The intervals are precisely the connected space subsets of $\backslash R.$ It follows that the image of an interval by any continuous function from $\backslash mathbb\; R$ to $\backslash mathbb\; R$ is also an interval. This is one formulation of the intermediate value theorem.
     

The intervals are also the convex set of $\backslash R.$ The interval enclosure of a subset $X\backslash subseteq\; \backslash R$ is also the convex hull of $X.$
     

The closure of an interval is the union of the interval and the set of its finite endpoints, and hence is also an interval. (The latter also follows from the fact that the closure of every connected space of a topological space is a connected subset.) In other words, we have
     

     
$\backslash operatorname\{cl\}(a,b)=\backslash operatorname\{cl\}(a,b]=\backslash operatorname\{cl\}a,b)=\backslash operatorname\{cl\}[a,b=a,b,$
     
$\backslash operatorname\{cl\}(a,+\backslash infty)=\backslash operatorname\{cl\}[a,+\backslash infty)=[a,+\backslash infty),$
     
$\backslash operatorname\{cl\}(-\backslash infty,a)=\backslash operatorname\{cl\}(-\backslash infty,a]=(-\backslash infty,a],$
     
$\backslash operatorname\{cl\}(-\backslash infty,+\backslash infty)=(-\backslash infty,\backslash infty).$
     
     

The intersection of any collection of intervals is always an interval. The union of two intervals is an interval if and only if they have a non-empty intersection or an open end-point of one interval is a closed end-point of the other, for example $(a,b)\; \backslash cup\; b,c\; =\; (a,c].$
     

If $\backslash R$ is viewed as a metric space, its  are the open bounded intervals , and its  are the closed bounded intervals . In particular, the metric topology and order topology topologies in the real line coincide, which is the standard topology of the real line.
     

Any element  of an interval  defines a partition of  into three disjoint intervals 1, 2, 3: respectively, the elements of  that are less than , the singleton $x,x\; =\; \backslash \{x\backslash \},$ and the elements that are greater than . The parts 1 and 3 are both non-empty (and have non-empty interiors), if and only if  is in the interior of .  This is an interval version of the trichotomy principle.
     

 

 
 
  

  Dyadic intervals
 
 

 
 
A  dyadic interval is a bounded real interval whose endpoints are $\backslash tfrac\{j\}\{2^n\}$ and $\backslash tfrac\{j+1\}\{2^n\},$ where $j$ and $n$ are integers. Depending on the context, either endpoint may or may not be included in the interval.
     

Dyadic intervals have the following properties:
     

 

  

The length of a dyadic interval is always an integer power of two.
  
  

Each dyadic interval is contained in exactly one dyadic interval of twice the length.
  
  

Each dyadic interval is spanned by two dyadic intervals of half the length.
  
  

If two open dyadic intervals overlap, then one of them is a subset of the other.
  
 

The dyadic intervals consequently have a structure that reflects that of an infinite binary tree.
     

Dyadic intervals are relevant to several areas of numerical analysis, including adaptive mesh refinement, multigrid methods and wavelet. Another way to represent such a structure is p-adic analysis (for ).
     

 

 
 
  

  Generalizations
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
  

  Balls
 
 

 
 
An open finite interval $(a,\; b)$ is a 1-dimensional open ball with a center at $\backslash tfrac12(a\; +\; b)$ and a radius of $\backslash tfrac12(b\; -\; a).$ The closed finite interval $a,$ is the corresponding closed ball, and the interval's two endpoints $\backslash \{a,\; b\backslash \}$ form a 0-dimensional n-sphere. Generalized to $n$-dimensional Euclidean space, a ball is the set of points whose distance from the center is less than the radius. In the 2-dimensional case, a ball is called a disk.
     

If a half-space is taken as a kind of degenerate ball (without a well-defined center or radius), a half-space can be taken as analogous to a half-bounded interval, with its boundary plane as the (degenerate) sphere corresponding to the finite endpoint.
     

 

 
 
  

  Multi-dimensional intervals
 
 

 
 
A finite interval is (the interior of) a 1-dimensional hyperrectangle. Generalized to real coordinate space $\backslash R^n,$ an axis-aligned hyperrectangle (or box) is the Cartesian product of $n$ finite intervals. For $n=2$ this is a rectangle; for $n=3$ this is a rectangular cuboid (also called a "box").
     

Allowing for a mix of open, closed, and infinite endpoints, the Cartesian product of any $n$ intervals, $I\; =\; I\_1\backslash times\; I\_2\; \backslash times\; \backslash cdots\; \backslash times\; I\_n$ is sometimes called an  $n$-dimensional interval.
     

A  facet of such an interval $I$ is the result of replacing any non-degenerate interval factor $I\_k$ by a degenerate interval consisting of a finite endpoint of $I\_k.$ The  faces of $I$ comprise $I$ itself and all faces of its facets. The  corners of $I$ are the faces that consist of a single point of $\backslash R^n.$
     

 

 
 
  

  Convex polytopes
 
 

 
 
Any finite interval can be constructed as the intersection of half-bounded intervals (with an empty intersection taken to mean the whole real line), and the intersection of any number of half-bounded intervals is a (possibly empty) interval. Generalized to $n$-dimensional affine space, an intersection of half-spaces (of arbitrary orientation) is (the interior of) a convex polytope, or in the 2-dimensional case a convex polygon.
     

 

 
 
  

  Domains
 
 

 
 
An open interval is a connected open set of real numbers. Generalized to topological spaces in general, a non-empty connected open set is called a domain.
     

 

 
 
  

  Complex intervals
 
 

 
Intervals of  can be defined as regions of the complex plane, either rectangle or circular. Complex interval arithmetic and its applications, Miodrag Petković, Ljiljana Petković, Wiley-VCH, 1998, 
     

 

 
 
  

  Intervals in posets and preordered sets
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
  

  Definitions
 
 

 
The concept of intervals can be defined in arbitrary partially ordered sets or more generally, in arbitrary . For a preordered set $(X,\backslash lesssim)$ and two elements $a,b\backslash in\; X,$ one similarly defines the intervals
Karl Vind (2025). 9783540416838, Springer. ISBN 9783540416838
     

     

     
$a,b\; =\backslash \{x\backslash in\; X\; \backslash mid\; a\backslash lesssim\; x\backslash lesssim\; b\backslash \},$
     

     

     

     
$[a,\backslash infty)\; =\backslash \{x\backslash in\; X\; \backslash mid\; a\backslash lesssim\; x\backslash \},$
     

     
$(-\backslash infty,b]\; =\backslash \{x\backslash in\; X\; \backslash mid\; x\backslash lesssim\; b\backslash \},$
     
$(-\backslash infty,\backslash infty)\; =X,$
     
where 

     
$\backslash bar\; X=X\backslash sqcup\backslash \{-\backslash infty,\backslash infty\backslash \}$
     

     
defined by adding new smallest and greatest elements (even if there were ones), which are subsets of $X.$ In the case of $X=\backslash mathbb\; R$ one may take $\backslash bar\backslash mathbb\; R$ to be the extended real line.
     

 

 
 
  

  Convex sets and convex components in order theory
 
 

 
 
A subset $A\backslash subseteq\; X$ of the preordered set $(X,\backslash lesssim)$ is  (order-)convex if for every $x,y\backslash in\; A$ and every $x\backslash lesssim\; z\backslash lesssim\; y$ we have $z\backslash in\; A.$ Unlike in the case of the real line, a convex set of a preordered set need not be an interval. For example, in the totally ordered set $(\backslash mathbb\; Q,\backslash le)$ of , the set
     

     

     
is convex, but not an interval of $\backslash mathbb\; Q,$ since there is no square root of two in $\backslash mathbb\; Q.$
     

Let $(X,\backslash lesssim)$ be a preordered set and let $Y\backslash subseteq\; X.$ The convex sets of $X$ contained in $Y$ form a poset under inclusion. A maximal element of this poset is called a  convex component of $Y.$ By the Zorn lemma, any convex set of $X$ contained in $Y$ is contained in some convex component of $Y,$ but such components need not be unique. In a totally ordered set, such a component is always unique. That is, the convex components of a subset of a totally ordered set form a partition.
     

 

 
 
  

  Properties
 
 

 
A generalization of the characterizations of the real intervals follows. For a non-empty subset $I$ of a linear continuum $(L,\backslash le),$ the following conditions are equivalent.
James R. Munkres (2025). 9780131816299, Prentice Hall. . ISBN 9780131816299
 

  

The set $I$ is an interval.
  
  

The set $I$ is order-convex.
  
  

The set $I$ is a connected subset when $L$ is endowed with the order topology.
  
 

For a subset $S$ of a lattice $L,$ the following conditions are equivalent.
 

  

The set $S$ is a sublattice and an (order-)convex set.
  
  

There is an ideal $I\backslash subseteq\; L$ and a filter $F\backslash subseteq\; L$ such that $S=I\backslash cap\; F.$
  
 

 

 
 
  

  Applications
 
 

 
 

 
 
  

  In general topology
 
 

 
Every Tychonoff space is embeddable into a product space of the closed unit intervals $0,1.$ Actually, every Tychonoff space that has a base of cardinality $\backslash kappa$ is embeddable into the product $0,1^\backslash kappa$ of $\backslash kappa$ copies of the intervals.
Ryszard Engelking (1989). 9783885380061, Heldermann Verlag. ISBN 9783885380061
     

The concepts of convex sets and convex components are used in a proof that every totally ordered set endowed with the order topology is completely normal or moreover, monotonically normal.
     

 

 
 
  

  Topological algebra
 
 

 
 
 
Intervals can be associated with points of the plane, and hence regions of intervals can be associated with regions of the plane. Generally, an interval in mathematics corresponds to an ordered pair  taken from the direct product $\backslash R\; \backslash times\; \backslash R$ of real numbers with itself, where it is often assumed that . For purposes of mathematical structure, this restriction is discarded,Kaj Madsen (1979), Review of "Interval analysis in the extended interval space" by Edgar Kaucher,  and "reversed intervals" where  are allowed. Then, the collection of all intervals  can be identified with the topological ring formed by the direct sum of $\backslash R$ with itself, where addition and multiplication are defined component-wise.
     

The direct sum algebra $(\; \backslash R\; \backslash oplus\; \backslash R,\; +,\; \backslash times)$ has two ideals, {  x,0 :  x ∈ R } and { 0, y :  y ∈ R }. The identity element of this algebra is the condensed interval . If interval  is not in one of the ideals, then it has multiplicative inverse . Endowed with the usual topology, the algebra of intervals forms a topological ring. The group of units of this ring consists of four quadrants determined by the axes, or ideals in this case. The identity component of this group is quadrant I.
     

Every interval can be considered a symmetric interval around its midpoint.  In a reconfiguration published in 1956 by M Warmus, the axis of "balanced intervals"  is used along with the axis of intervals  that reduce to a point. Instead of the direct sum $R\; \backslash oplus\; R,$ the ring of intervals has been identifiedD. H. Lehmer (1956) Review of "Calculus of Approximations",  with the hyperbolic numbers by M. Warmus and D. H. Lehmer through the identification
     

     
$z\; =\; \backslash tfrac12(x\; +\; y)\; +\; \backslash tfrac12(x\; -\; y)j,$
     
where $j^2\; =\; 1.$
     

This linear mapping of the plane, which amounts of a ring isomorphism, provides the plane with a multiplicative structure having some analogies to ordinary complex arithmetic, such as polar decomposition.
     

 

 
 
  

  See also
 
 

 
 

  

Arc (geometry)
  
  

Inequality
  
  

     Interval graph
  
  

Interval finite element
  
  

Interval (statistics)
  
  

     Line segment
  
  

Partition of an interval
  
  

     Unit interval
  
 

 
 
 

 
 
  

  Bibliography
 
 

 
 

  

T. Sunaga,  "Theory of interval algebra and its application to numerical analysis" , In: Research Association of Applied Geometry (RAAG) Memoirs, Ggujutsu Bunken Fukuy-kai. Tokyo, Japan, 1958, Vol. 2, pp. 29–46 (547-564); reprinted in Japan Journal on Industrial and Applied Mathematics, 2009, Vol. 26, No. 2-3, pp. 126–143.
  
 

 

 
 
  

  External links
 
 

 
 

  

  A Lucid Interval by Brian Hayes: An  American Scientist article provides an introduction.
  
  

      Interval computations website
  
  

      Interval computations research centers
  
  

      Interval Notation by George Beck, Wolfram Demonstrations Project.
  
 

 
 
Categories: Sets Of Real Numbers, Order Theory, Topology

Post Comment