The Typewriter Sequence
I drew the first 63 functions in the sequence to help me understand its convergences. It might help others as well to understand answers given above:
Unfortunately, here I can only attach the rasterized format. In case someone wants to reproduce it, here is the Latex code:
\documentclass[9pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{bbm}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{tikz,pgfplots}
\usetikzlibrary{arrows}
\newcommand{\nMAX}{63}
\newcommand{\xGrSamp}{8}
\begin{document}
\centering
\begin{tikzpicture}[font=\Large,shorten >=-2.5pt,shorten <=-2.5pt]
\begin{axis}[
axis x line*=bottom,
axis y line*=right,
axis z line*=left,
plot box ratio = 3 1000 2,
view={.3}{.2},
xmin=-0.2, xmax=1.25,
ymin=0.6, ymax=\nMAX+0.3,
zmin=0, zmax=1.0,
xtick={0,1/8,2/8,3/8,4/8,5/8,6/8,7/8,1},
xticklabels={$0$,$\frac{1}{2^3}$,$\frac{2}{2^3}$,$\frac{3}{2^3}$,$\frac{4}{2^3}$,$\frac{5}{2^3}$,$\frac{6}{2^3}$,$\frac{7}{2^3}$,$1$},
ytick={0,...,\nMAX},
ztick={0,...,1.0},
xlabel=$x$,
ylabel=$n$,
zlabel=$f_n(x)$,
x label style={at={(axis description cs:0.067,-0.001)},anchor=north},
y label style={at={(axis description cs:0.062,0.145)},anchor=south},
z label style={at={(axis description cs:-0.002,0.035)},anchor=south},
yscale=5,
xscale=5,
legend entries={$f_n(x)=1\,$,
$f_n(x)=0\,$},
legend style={rounded corners=3pt,at={(0.023,0.14)}},
legend style={nodes={scale=1.5, transform shape}},
legend plot pos=right,
]
\foreach \n in {1, ..., \nMAX}
{
\pgfmathsetmacro\k{floor(log2(\n+1e-1))}
\pgfmathsetmacro{\xm}{-0.2}
\pgfmathsetmacro\xM{1.2}
\pgfmathsetmacro\xa{(\n-(2^(\k)))/(2^(\k))}
\pgfmathsetmacro\xb{(\n-(2^(\k))+1)/(2^(\k))}
\edef\temp
{
\noexpand\coordinate (d1) at (axis cs:\xm,\n,0);
\noexpand\coordinate (d2) at (axis cs:\xa,\n,0);
\noexpand\coordinate (d3) at (axis cs:\xa,\n,1);
\noexpand\coordinate (d4) at (axis cs:\xb,\n,1);
\noexpand\coordinate (d5) at (axis cs:\xb,\n,0);
\noexpand\coordinate (d6) at (axis cs:\xM,\n,0);
\noexpand\coordinate (g0) at (axis cs:\xm,\n,1);
\noexpand\coordinate (g1) at (axis cs:\xM,\n,1);
}
\temp
\draw[blue,<-o] (d1)--(d2);
\draw[black,dashed,line width=0.04mm] (d2)--(d3);
\draw[red,*-*] (d3)--(d4);
\draw[black,dashed,line width=0.04mm] (d4)--(d5);
\draw[blue,o->] (d5)--(d6);
\draw[black,dashed,line width=0.04mm] (g0)--(g1);
}
\pgfplotsinvokeforeach{0, ..., \xGrSamp}
{
\draw[black,dashed,line width=0.06mm] (axis cs:#1/\xGrSamp,0,0)--(axis cs:#1/\xGrSamp,\nMAX,0);
}
\addlegendimage{no markers,red}
\addlegendimage{no markers,blue}
\end{axis}
\node[rectangle,draw,rounded corners=3pt,text width=7.7cm] at (29.3,1.7)
{\huge Typewriter Sequence: \\$f_n(x)={\mathbbm{1}}_{[\frac{n-2^k}{2^k},\frac{n-2^k+1}{2^k}]},$\\
$\forall\, k\geq 0\,\, \&\,\, 2^k\leq n<2^{k+1} $};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}
Note that at any choice of $x$ and for any integer $N$, there is an $n>N$ with $f_n(x)=1$. So, the numerical sequence $f_n(x)$ cannot converge to $0$.
Note, however, that we can certainly select a subsequence of this sequence of functions that converges pointwise a.e.
Draw a picture of the generic function $f_n$ in the typewriter sequence. It's a rectangle of height 1 over an interval of width $1/2^k$, with value zero elsewhere. As the sequence progresses, the rectangles slide across the unit interval, the way a typewriter moves across the page. At each 'carriage return' of the typewriter, a new row of rectangles starts, each rectangle having half the width as before. You can see that for every point $x$ in the unit interval, the sequence $f_n(x)$ takes values zero and one infinitely often, so $f_n(x)$ cannot converge to any number.