Dictionary Definition

unbounded adj : seemingly boundless in amount, number, degree, or especially extent; "unbounded enthusiasm"; "children with boundless energy"; "a limitless supply of money" [syn: boundless, limitless]

User Contributed Dictionary

English

Etymology

unbound + -ed

1. having no boundaries or limits
The universe is finite but unbounded
Our everlasting, unbouded love

Extensive Definition

In mathematics, a function f defined on some set X with real or complex values is called bounded, if the set of its values is bounded. In other words, there exists a number M>0 such that
|f(x)|\le M
for all x in X.
Sometimes, if f(x)\le A for all x in X, then the function is said to be bounded above by A. On the other hand, if f(x)\ge B for all x in X, then the function is said to be bounded below by B.
The concept should not be confused with that of a bounded operator.
An important special case is a bounded sequence, where X is taken to be the set N of natural numbers. Thus a sequence f = ( a0, a1, a2, ... ) is bounded if there exists a number M > 0 such that
|an| ≤ M
for every natural number n. The set of all bounded sequences, equipped with a vector space structure, forms a sequence space.
This definition can be extended to functions taking values in a metric space Y. Such a function f defined on some set X is called bounded if for some a in Y there exists a number M>0 such that
d(f(x), a)\le M
for all x in X.
If this is the case, there is also such an M for each other a.

Examples

• The function f:R → R defined by f (x)=sin x is bounded. The sine function is no longer bounded if it is defined over the set of all complex numbers.
• The function
f(x)=\frac
defined for all real x which do not equal −1 or 1 is not bounded. As x gets closer to −1 or to 1, the values of this function get larger and larger in magnitude. This function can be made bounded if one considers its domain to be, for example, [2, ∞).
• The function
f(x)=\frac
defined for all real x is bounded.
• Every continuous function f:[0,1] → R is bounded. This is really a special case of a more general fact: Every continuous function from a compact space into a metric space is bounded.
• The function f which takes the value 0 for x rational number and 1 for x irrational number is bounded. Thus, a function does not need to be "nice" in order to be bounded. The set of all bounded functions defined on [0,1] is much bigger than the set of continuous functions on that interval.
unbounded in Czech: Omezená funkce
unbounded in Esperanto: Barita funkcio
unbounded in Icelandic: Takmarkað fall
unbounded in Italian: Funzione limitata
unbounded in Hebrew: פונקציה חסומה
unbounded in Polish: Funkcja ograniczona