TITLE: All derivatives zero at a point $\implies$ constant function?
QUESTION [24 upvotes]: Suppose $f: \mathbb{R} \rightarrow \mathbb{R} $ is a continuous function, and there exists some $a \in \mathbb{R}$ where all derivatives of $f$ exist and are identically $0$, i.e. $f'(a) = 0, f''(a) = 0, \ldots$ Must $f$ be a constant function? or if not, are there examples of non-constant $f$ that satisfy these properties? 
What if the hypothesis is changed so that the derivatives of $f$ are identically $0$ on an open interval, i.e. $f'(A) = 0, f''(A) = 0, \ldots$ for some open interval $A$. Are the answers still the same?

REPLY [9 votes]: As others have pointed out, the canonical counter-example is the function $f(x)=e^{-1/x^2}$. But what is special about this function? The answer is that it is very badly behaved near $0$ in the complex plane, because $-1/x^2$ is arbitrarily large and positive along the imaginary axis close to $0$.