Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-functional-analysis-ii-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2023/2/b/ii/solution

Use the closed unit ball first, and put . This is a convex set symmetric about zero. If , then , so taking midpoints gives
Write . By scaling,
Fix with . Starting with , recursively choose such that
At each step the previous residual lies in the open ball on the left of the scaled inclusion, so the definition of closure permits this approximation. The series converges to some because is a Banach space, and the triangle inequality gives . Continuity of gives , since . Thus
Scaling by now gives the slightly smaller open ball
This proves the assertion whether the original unit ball is taken open or closed. Only completeness of was used; the normed space need not be complete. The argument is geometric correction for approximate surjectivity.

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