Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2010
The purpose of this paper is to define and study a natural rank function which associates to each differentiable function (say on the interval [0,1]) a countable ordinal number, which measures the complexity of its derivative. Functions with continuous derivatives have the smallest possible rank 1, a function like x2 sin (x−1) has rank 2, etc., and we show that functions of any given countable ordinal rank exist. This exhibits an underlying hierarchical structure of the class of differentiable functions, consisting of ω1, distinct levels. The definition of rank is invariant under addition of constants, and so it naturally assigns also to every derivative a unique rank, and an associated hierarchy for the class of all derivatives.