Section 33: Problem 11 Solution
Working problems is a crucial part of learning mathematics. No one can learn topology merely by poring over the definitions, theorems, and examples that are worked out in the text. One must work part of it out for oneself. To provide that opportunity is the purpose of the exercises.
James R. Munkres
(a) The sets cover
((iii) and (iv) is already enough). Now, the non-empty intersections: (i) and (i) is of type (i), (i) and (ii) is (i), (i) and (iii) is (i), (i) and (iv) is (i), (ii) and (ii) is (ii), (ii) and (iii) is (ii), (ii) and (iv) is (ii), (iii) and (iii) is (iii), (iii) and (iv) contains (ii), (iv) and (iv) is (iv) (note, once again, the intersection is assumed to be non-empty).(b)
,
and its intersection with
is a
set containing
. Therefore, there are only countably many points (given by the intersection of (ii)-type neighborhoods) in
, the set of
such that
. If
does not intersect any of
(countably many points) then for every
,
. Since
is continuous and every neighborhood of a point in
contains the intersection of some horizontal interval containing the point with
,
. Now, every open set containing
, contains the whole bunch of sets
, and the same is true for open sets containing
. Therefore, both points a limit points of
and
.(c) It is not completely regular because
and
cannot be separated (and we will show that one-point sets are closed). Now, it is a
space: consider points
,
, two points in
and a point in
and two points in
and a point in
. For each point in the list we can easily find a neighborhood that does not contain another point in the list. Now, we show it is regular: every neighborhood of a point contains the closure of another neighborhood.Let
and
denote all points to the left (including
) and to the right (including
) of
. Then
,
and
are closed. Therefore, any basis neighborhood of
(or
) contains the closure of another neighborhood.
is closed (for any point not in it find a neighborhood that does not intersect
). If a point is in
then the one-point set is open (the intersection of a small enough horizontal interval and
) and closed. Every basis neighborhood of
contains all but finite number of points in
, but it is closed as well.If a point is in
then its basis neighborhood is either
for some
or
for some
or the intersection of a horizontal open interval with
. The first two types of neighborhoods contain a neighborhood of the third type. But the third type neighborhood (small enough so that they do not contain other limit points) is closed as well (the rest of the space is the union of horizontal intersections, some neighborhoods of
and
, and sets
minus finite number of points).