Math 4853

Exam 1 — Answers
Problem 1. (20 points) This problem involves subsets of the real line R.
T∞
(a) Prove that (−1/n, 1/n) = {0} by showing that each of the two sets is a subset of the other.
S∞ n=1
(b) Describe n=1 (−1/n, 1/n) in simplest form. Explain.
T∞
(c) Describe n=1 (−1/n, 1 + 1/n) in simplest form. Explain.
(d) Is the following statement true or false? Every subset of R is an interval.

Answer: T∞
(a) step 1: {0} is a subset of n=1 (−1/n, 1/n).
Since 0 is an element of the open interval (−1/n, 1/n) for every positive integer n, therefore
∞
\
+
0 ∈ {x ∈ R | x ∈ (−1/n, 1/n) for every n ∈ Z } = (−1/n, 1/n).
n=1
T∞
T∞0 is the only element of {0}, this shows that every element of {0} is in n=1 (−1/n, 1/n), and {0} ⊆
As
n=1 (−1/n,
T∞ 1/n) by the definition of subset.
step 2: T∞is a subset of {0}.
n=1 (−1/n, 1/n)
Let x be an element of n=1 (−1/n, 1/n). By the definition of intersection this means that x ∈ (−1/n, 1/n) for
every n ∈ Z+ . Suppose that x does not equal 0. Then |x| > 0 and, by the Archimedean Principle, there is a
T∞ N such that 0 < 1/N < 1/|x|. Therefore x ∈
positive integer / (−1/N, 1/N ) which contradicts the assumption
that x ∈ n=1T∞ (−1/n, 1/n). Since x
T∞6
= 0 leads to a contradiction x must equal 0. This shows that 0 is the only
element of n=1 (−1/n, 1/n) and n=1 (−1/n, 1/n) ⊆ {0}.
S∞
(b) n=1 (−1/n, 1/n) = (−1, 1)
T∞
(c) n=1 (−1/n, 1 + 1/n) = [0, 1]
(d) The statement ‘every subset of R is an interval ’ is false. There are many subsets of R which are not
intervals. To give a few examples, none of the subsets {1, 3, 5}, {1/n | n ∈ Z + }, [0, 2] ∪ (5, 7], or Q (the set of
rational numbers) is an interval. (An interval is a subset I of R which has the property that if x and y are
elements of I and z is a real number between x and y then z ∈ I.)

Problem 2. (30 points) Let A = (1, 2) and B = [0, 3] be intervals in the real line R. Consider the collection
T of subsets of R defined by: T = {∅, R} ∪ {U ⊂ R | A ⊆ U and U ⊆ B}.
(a) State the properties (T1)-(T4) that a collection of subsets of a set X must satisfy to form a topology on X.
(b) Verify that T forms a topology on R.
√
(c) Describe all of the open sets in T which contain the real number 65.
(d) Give an example of a set that is open in T but not open in the Euclidean topology Teuclid on R.
(e) Give an example of a set that is closed in the Euclidean topology Teuclid on R but not closed in T .

Answer:
(a) Let T be a collection of subsets of X. Then T is a topology if it satisfies the following properties:
(T1) ∅ ∈ T
(T2) X ∈ T
(T3) If Uj ∈ T for each j ∈ J then ∪j∈J Uj ∈ T
(T4) If U1 ∈ T and U2 ∈ T then U1 ∩ U2 ∈ T
(b) By its definition T contains ∅ and R and this shows that properties (T1) and (T2) hold.
For (T3), assume that Uj ∈ T for each j ∈ J and it is legitimate to also assume that none of the Uj ’s are R or
∅. (For example, if one of them is R then the union ∪j∈J Uj will also equal R and R ∈ T .) Therefore we assume
that A ⊆ Uj ⊆ B for all j ∈ J. Then A ⊆ ∪j∈J Uj and ∪j∈J Uj ⊆ B which implies that ∪j∈J Uj ∈ T . This
verifies (T3).

1
For (T4) assume that U1 ∈ T and U2 ∈ T and again it is legitimate to also assume that neither of the sets is R
or ∅. (For example if one of the sets is empty then so is the intersection of the two sets and ∅ ∈ T .) Therefore
A ⊆ U1 ⊆ B and A ⊆ U2 ⊆ B. Then A ⊆ U1 ∩ U2 ⊆ B and U1 ∩ U2 ∈ T , verifying (T4).
√ √
(c) If U ∈ T and U 6= R then U ⊆ [0, 3]. Since 65 > 3 the only open set in T containing 65 is R.
(d) Any subset of [0, 3] which contains (1, 2) is open in T but many of these sets will not be open in Teuclid .
For example [1, 2) or (1, 2) ∪ {0} are open in T but are not Euclidean open sets.
(e) The closed sets in T are R, ∅ and every set
√ C ⊂ R with R − B ⊂ C ⊂ R − A where R − B = (−∞, 0) ∪ (3, ∞)
and R − A = (−∞, 0) ∪ (3, ∞). The sets { 65} and [0, 3] are two examples of Euclidean closed sets that are
not closed in T .

Problem 3. (20 points) Let X be the five element set X = {a, b, c, d, e}.
(a) Show that the collection of subsets S = {∅, X, {a, b, c}, {c, d}, {a, c}} does not form a topology on X.
(b) Find the smallest topology T on X which includes the subsets in S from part (a) as open sets.
(c) List all of the closed sets in the topology T that you found in part (b).

Answer:
(a) Both of the properties (T3) and (T4) fail for S. For example, {a, b, c} and {c, d} are in S but neither their
union {a, b, c} ∪ {c, d} = {a, b, c, d} nor their intersection {a, b, c} ∩ {c, d} = {c} is in S.
(b) The smallest topology on X containing S is T = S ∪ {{a, b, c, d}, {c}, {a, c, d}}.
(c) The set of closed sets in the topology T from (b) is:

{X, ∅, {d, e}, {a, b, e}, {b, d, e}, {e}, {a, b, d, e}, {b, e}}.

Notice that there are exactly the same number of closed sets as open sets, and the closed sets are precisely the
complements X − U of the open sets U .

Problem 4. (15 points) Let f : R2 → R be the function f (x, y) = 2x − y.

(a) Define the direct image f (A) of a subset A ⊆ R2 , and define the inverse image f −1 (B) of a subset B ⊆ R.
(b) Let B ⊂ R be the open interval (0, 1). Describe the set f −1 (B) and sketch a picture of it.
(c) Let A be the singleton set {(2, −1)} ⊂ R2 . Describe the sets f (A) and f −1 (f (A)).

Answer:
(a) The direct image of A is f (A) = {f (x, y) | (x, y) ∈ A} = {2x − y | (x, y) ∈ A} and the inverse image of B
is f −1 (B) = {(x, y) ∈ R2 | f (x, y) ∈ B} = {(x, y) | 2x − y ∈ B}.
(b) f −1 ((0, 1)) = {(x, y) ∈ R2 | 0 < 2x − y < 1} = {(x, y) | 2x − 1 < y < 2x}, and this is the open band
between the two parallel lines y = 2x − 1 and y = 2x in the xy-plane.
(c) f ({(2, −1)}) = {f (2, −1)} = {5} and f −1 (f ({(2, −1)})) = f −1 ({5}) = {(x, y) ∈ R2 | 2x − y = 5}. The
latter set constitutes the straight line y = 2x − 5 in the xy-plane.

Problem 5. (15 points) Let X be a set.

(a) What is the discrete topology on X?
(b) What is the trivial topology on X?
(c) Explain why the discrete topology is finer than any other topology on X.

Answer:
(a) The discrete topology on X is Tdiscrete = P(X) = {U | U ⊆ X}.
(b) The trivial topology on X is Ttrivial = {∅, X}.
(c) If T is a topology on X then T ⊆ P(X) = Tdiscrete .