Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2022/ib/paper-3/12f/a/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 ib Paper 3 12F a Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
A topological surface is a Hausdorff, second-countable space in which every point has a neighbourhood homeomorphic to an open subset of .
For , interior points and points in the interiors of paired edges plainly have disc neighbourhoods. The corner identifications form two classes; in each class two quarter-discs are glued to make a half-disc, and the adjacent identified edge neighbourhoods complete a disc. Equivalently, this polygon is a cell decomposition of the real projective plane, hence a quotient of by the antipodal group. Thus is a topological surface.
In , three distinct sides labelled are identified. A point in the interior of their common image has a neighbourhood made from three half-discs meeting along their diameters. Removing the common diameter leaves three local sides rather than two, so this neighbourhood is not a disc or half-disc. Therefore
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