Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2009/ii/paper-1/22h/a/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 ii Paper 1 22H a Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The Baire category theorem states that a complete metric space is a Baire space: the intersection of countably many open dense sets is dense. Equivalently, a nonempty open subset cannot be a countable union of nowhere dense sets.
Let be open dense and any nonempty open set. Choose a closed ball of positive radius at most inside . Inductively choose inside the interior of intersected with , with positive radius at most . Density makes this intersection nonempty, and openness supplies a sufficiently small closed ball. The centres form a Cauchy sequence because all later centres lie in , whose diameter tends to zero. Completeness gives a limit . Since each ball is closed and contains all later centres, for every . Thus , proving density. Applying this to complements of the closures of nowhere dense sets gives the equivalent formulation.
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