MATH 6310

ASSIGNMENT 1
Due on Wednesday, Sept 23, 2020

Name M.U.N. Number

1. The purpose of this project is to understand topology of R.
(1a) Prove or disprove: The set Q is the intersection of a countable family of open subsets
of R.
(1b) Let X ⊆ R be a nonempty connected set of real numbers. If every element of X is
rational, prove X has only one element.
(1c) Give an example of a subset of R having uncountably many connected components.
Can such a subset be open? Closed?

2. The purpose of this project is to understand the structure of a compact subset K of Rn .

(2a) If (Bj )∞
j=1 is a sequence of open balls that covers K, prove that there is a positive
number  such that each ball with radius  and center x ∈ K is contained in one of the balls
(Bj )∞
j=1 .

(2b) If (xj )∞ ∞
j=1 is a sequence of points in K such that every convergent subsequence of (xj )j=1
∞
converges to x ∈ K, prove (xj )j=1 converges to x.
(2c) Give an example to show that if K is not compact, the result in (2b) is not necessarily
true.

3. The purpose of this project is to understand the distance of two subsets S1 and S2 of a given
complete metric space (X, d):

d(S1 , S2 ) = inf{d(x, y) : x ∈ S1 , y ∈ S2 }.

(3a) Suppose S1 contains only one point x and S2 is closed. Prove d(S1 , S2 ) = d(x, y) for
some y ∈ S2 .
(3b) Suppose S1 is compact and S2 is closed. Prove d(S1 , S2 ) = d(x, y) for some x ∈ S1 ,
y ∈ S2 .
(3c) Show by example that the conclusion of (3b) can be false if S1 and S2 are closed but
not compact.