Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2003 ib Paper 2 13E b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The set is path-connected as the continuous image of , hence connected. Its closure is together with the unit circle. Indeed as , and any convergent sequence of spiral points either has bounded parameters, giving a point of , or has parameters tending to infinity along a subsequence, giving radius one. The closure of a connected set is connected: a separation of its closure would induce a separation of the dense original set, with neither open part missing that set. The closed disk is connected and meets this closure in the unit circle; their union is therefore connected.
To show it is not path-connected, suppose a path starts in and ends in the disk. Let be its first contact with the disk. The disk is closed, so this first contact exists, and . Before it, the path belongs to and has a continuous uniquely determined parameterContinuity at contact forces , and hence as . The intermediate value theorem supplies times approaching at which is an integer, and other times at which it is an integer plus . These times must approach contact because is bounded on every compact interval strictly before it. Along the first sequence ; along the second it tends to . This contradicts continuity at . Thus no path joins the spiral to the disk, proving failure of path-connectedness for the spiral accumulating on a circle.