Nagoya University: 2006 1

Problem 1. Let Rn denote the m-dimensional Euclidean space, and let d be a metric on
Rn . For a ∈ Rn and positive real r, one calls

Br (a) = {x ∈ Rn |d(a, x) < r}

an open ball with radius r centered at a. Also, one says that a map f : Rn → Rn is contin-
uous if for every a ∈ Rn and  > 0 there exists some δ > 0 such that f (Bδ (a)) ⊂ B (f (a)).
Then answer the following problems.

(1) Using the definition of an open ball, state the definition of an open set U ⊂ Rn .

Solution: A subset U of Rn is open if for every a ∈ U there exists some  > 0 such that
B (a) ⊂ U .

(2) The map f : Rn → Rn is continuous if and only if for every open subset U ⊂ Rn f −1 (U )
is open.

Proof. (⇒) First suppose that f : Rn → Rn is continuous, and let U ⊂ Rn be open. Then,
consider the following two cases.
Case 1. f (Rn ) ∩ U = ∅. Then f −1 (U ) = ∅, which is open in Rn .
Case 2. f (Rn ) ∩ U 6= ∅.Then there exists some f (a) ∈ U and  > 0 such that B (f (a)) ⊂ U .
Since f is continuous by assumption, there is  > 0 so that f (Bδ (a)) ⊂ B (f (a)) ⊂ U .
Therefore,
Bδ (a) ⊂ f −1 (U )
and thus f −1 (U ) is open in Rn .
(⇐) Conversely suppose that f −1 (U ) is open for every open subset U ⊂ Rn . Since an open
ball B (f (a)) itself is open in Rn for every  > 0, f −1 (B (f (a))) is open in Rn because
of continuity of f . Then there exists δ > 0 such that Bδ (a) ⊂ f −1 (B (f (a))). Therefore,
f (Bδ (a)) ⊂ B (f (a)) and hence f is continuous.
(3) A subset A ⊂ Rn is called connected if

U ∩A=∅ or V ∩A=∅

for all open sets U and V with the property

A⊂U ∪V and U ∩ V ∩ A = ∅.

Then show that if a map f : Rn → Rn is continuous and A ⊂ Rn is connected, then

f (A) ⊂ Rn is connected.

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Nagoya University: 2006 2

Proof. Suppose by contradiction that f (A) is not connected, i.e. U ∩ f (A) 6= ∅ and V ∩
f (A) 6= ∅ for some open sets U and V in Rn so that

f (A) ⊂ U ∪ V and U ∩ V ∩ f (A) = ∅.

Then
A ⊂ f −1 (U ∪ V ) = f −1 (U ) ∪ f −1 (V )
and

f −1 (U ∩ V ∩ f (A)) = f −1 (∅) ⇒ f −1 (U ) ∩ f −1 (V ) ∩ A ⊂ ∅
⇒ f −1 (U ) ∩ f −1 (V ) ∩ A = ∅.

Observe that f −1 (U ) and f −1 (V ) are both open in Rn since f is continuous. However, since

U ∩ f (A) 6= ∅ and V ∩ f (A) 6= ∅

are both included in the image of f ,

f −1 (U ) ∩ A and f −1 (V ) ∩ A

are not empty sets. This contradicts the assumption that A is connected. Therefore, the
continuous image f (A) is connected.

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