Several readers: “What’s with this ’supremum’ and ‘infimum’ stuff? Why

can’t you say ‘maximum’ and ‘minimum,’ like a normal human being?”

Answer: Because they are different things. The set of all real numbers

less than 1 has a supremum, but no maximum. That function of mine has lots

of maximums — an infinity of them, in fact! — and it also has a supremum;

but none of the maximums is equal to the supremum. That’s the point.

I really must start those pop quizzes…