Problem 1. Let A be an open set.

Show that if a finite number of points are removed

from A, the remaining set is still open. IS the same true if a countable number of points are
removed?
Solution. We know that a single point x R1 is a closed set, as it contains its own limit
point(empty set). Also we know a finite union of closed sets is still closed. Therefore if we
remove a closed set from an open set, we still obtain an open set.
However this is invalid when you are removing a countable number of points, especially
when they do not form a closed set. For example if you remove all the rationals from R1
you wont have an open set as the result.

Problem 2. Show that a limit-point of A is a limit-point of the sequence. Show that if no
point in A occurs more than a finite number of times in the sequence, then a limit-point of
the sequence is a limit-point of the set.
Solution. Assume x is a limit-point of the set A, then pick up a point xnk (x k1 , x+ k1 ), k =
1, 2, 3, . . . , then we have our subsequence {xnk } converging to x, which means x is also a
limit point for the sequence A. Now we need to prove the second part. Assume this time x
is a limit point of the sequence A, then there is a subsequence xnk A converging to x. As
no point in A occurs more than a finite number of tiems we know x is also a limit point for
the set A.

Problem 4. . The solution to this question is quite similar to the previous one
Problem 5. Let A be a closed set, x a point in A, and B = A\ {x}. Under waht conditions
is B closed
Solution. This is an open problem as there might be more than one solutions. However the
most reasonable one would be if x is not a limit point, because by removing a limit point
from A, A no longer contains all of its limit points, which breaks up the definition of closed
set.

Problem 6. Prove that every infinite set has a countable dense subset. Give an example
of a set A such that the intersection of A with the rational numbers is not dense in A
Solution. Since Q is countable, we let qi , i = 1, 2, 3, . . . denote the rationals. Now consider
the countably many open intervals
Ik = (qi , qj )

in which we apparently use k = 1, 2, 3, . . . as a new label for the countable set. Now choose
xk Ik A
if the later one is not empty. Then it is easy to see that {xk } is dense subset of A.
For the counterexample, you can simply consider the irrationals

Problem 8. Show that the set of limit point of a sequence is a closed set.
Solution. We denote the limit points of sequence A by B. Then we need to prove B c , the
compliment of B in R1 to be open. For x B c we know that there exists certain n0 such
that
2
2
A (x , x + ) = .
n0
n0
Now choose a slightly smaller neighborhood of x, say (x 1/n0 , x + 1/n0 ). Then it is easy
to see that there exits no limit points of A inside this open interval, because there is a
gap of length 1/n which prevents points in A from converging to x. Therefore we know
(x 1/n0 , x + 1/n0 ) B c , which shows that B c is open.

Problem 9. Given a closed set A, construct a sequence whose set of limit points is A
Solution. We use {xk } constructed in exercise 6. By the construction process we know that
B = {xk } is dense in A, which means A B 0 by the property of dense subsets. On the
other hands, since A is closed it must contain the limit points of itself, and of all its subsets.
Therefore we know since B A that B 0 A. Therefore B 0 = A

Problem 14. What sets are both open and closed.
Solution. It is quite easy to guess only the empty set and R1 can be both open and
closed. However the proof is not trivial. Now assume U is both open and closed in R1 and
so is its compliment V = U c . Of course if U, V are not empty, then there exist at least one
point x U and one point y V . Now consider the least upper bound z of the set U [x, y].
Since U is closed, so is the intersection U [x, y], therefore x U . However, since y
/ U and
U is also open, we know x V (you can prove this rigorously by showing that x is a limit
point of U c = V ). Now we have a contradiction because U V = .

Problem 15. This is just a corollary of the open set structure theorem on page 88.
Problem 4. If A B1 B2 where B1 and B2 are disjoint open sets and A is compact,
show that A B1 is compact. Is the same true if B1 and B2 are not disjoint?
Solution. Since B1 and B2 are disjoint, we know B1 B2c , therefore A B2c = [(A B2c )
B1 ] [(A B2c ) B1c ] = A B1 = A B1 . Since B2c is closed, we know that A B2c is

also closed as A is closed. Since a closed set of a compact set is also compact(try to prove
this), we are done.

Problem 6. Show that if A is open, then A + B is also open. Show that if A and B are
compact, then A + B is compact.
Solution. Since A is open, it is easy to see that A + {x} is open for R1 . Now
[
A+B =
A + {x}
xB

is also open.
Now assume A and B are both compact. Any sequence {xn } A + B can be written
as xn = an + bn , an A, bn B. As A and B are compact, there exist subsequences
ank , bmk , nk , mk N, k = 1, 2, . . . which are convergent to a A, b B. Now choose
lk = max {nk , mk }, then it is easy to see that xlk = alk + blk is convergent to a + b A + B.

Problem 8. A is compact, show that sup A and inf A belong to A. Give an example of a
non-compact set A such that both sup A and inf A belong to A.
Solution. The first part is trivial from the property that a compact set is both closed and
bounded. For the second part you can use A = [1, 0) (0, 1].