Prove that if \(a\) is an upper bound for \(A\), and if \(a\) is also an element of \(A\), then it must be that \(a=\sup A\)

Proof

Let \(a\) be an upper bound for \(A\) where \(a \in A\). Let \(b = \sup A\). Then by definition, \(b\) is the least upper bound. Since \(a\) is an upper bound of \(A\), then

$$ \begin{align*} b \leq a \end{align*} $$

Now, since \(a \in A\), then by definition of an upper bound, we must have \(a \leq b\).

$$ \begin{align*} a \leq b \end{align*} $$

But this implies that \(a = b\) and so \(a = \sup A\). \(\ \blacksquare\)