A filled triangle is a disk with three vertices, three edges and one two-dimensional topological cell, so . Its simplicial homology has : the filled triangle is contractible, and the three-edge chain cycle is the chain boundary of its face. Keeping only the cycle graph on those three vertices gives and , since that chain cycle no longer bounds a face. The surrounding plane's exterior is not part of either simplicial complex; do not add it to .
Figure 1.
The filled triangle, its midpoint subdivision, and its unfilled boundary
. Details.
Use simplicial homology with a fixed coefficient group or ring. The Mayer–Vietoris sequence is
The inclusion maps define and . To define , split a simplicial cycle as with a chain in and in . Since , this boundary lies in , and . At degree zero the unreduced sequence ends with .
If , its representative is a boundary in and the negative of a boundary in , so . Thus .
Conversely if , choose and with . The chain is a simplicial cycle in . Its splitting into the chain and chain gives . Hence , the requested exactness at .