Arbitrarily Close: An Introduction to Real Analysis

by John A. Rock

Arbitrarily An Introduction to Real Analysis is geared towards the curious student who prefers thorough explanations and an abundance of detail beyond what the current canon on analysis generally offers. Concepts are built from a formal definition for “arbitrarily close” to parse introductions to the core and notoriously difficult concepts of convergence, compactness, continuity, limits, derivatives, integrals, uniform convergence, and series. The overall structure here follows a definition-example/theorem/lemma-scratch work-proof pattern. In particular, scratch work is used to motivate, comment upon, and provide preliminary work for proofs. Included are approximately 150 figures and 20 QR codes with links to dynamic Desmos and GeoGebra activities, all designed to help the reader find their own intuition for real analysis. Color is used in figures and to differentiate definitions, examples, theorems, remarks, and scratch work in order to aid with organization and the ability to reference material quickly.

540 pages, Hardcover

Published October 15, 2025