Union & Intersection of Collections of Open Sets

Properties of Open Sets

  1. A arbitrary union of open sets is open.
  2. A finite intersection of open sets is open.

Why does the infinite intersection case not hold? Consider:

⋂ε>0(0,1+ε)=(0,1]

which we showed is not open.

Proof

  1. Let Uλ be open in R, for λ∈Λ. Let x∈⋃λ∈ΛUλ. So ∃Uλ0 where x∈Uλ0 which itself is open. So then ∃ε>0 such that Vε(x)⊆Uλ0⊆⋃λ∈ΛUλ, completing the proof.
  2. Let U1,…,Un all be open sets in R. Let x∈⋂i=1nUi. Then x∈Ui for each i=1,...,n. Each Ui is open so then for each ∃εi>0 where Vεi(x)⊆Ui. Then choose ε=min(ε1,…,εn), which we can do since we have a finite number of them. Then clearly ε>0 and also since it's the smallest then:
Vε(x)⊆Vεi⊆Ui

for all i here, so then Vε(x)⊆⋂i=1nUi as desired.
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