Establishing that a function is discontinous

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According to the definition of continuity in topology a function f:X -> Y is continuous if for every open set V in Y, the set ##f(V)^{-1}## is open in X. I have found this definition powerfull in dealing with proofs of a more general nature, but when presented with the trivially discontinous function from the reals to the reals

$$f(x) = 1 \ \text{for} \ x< 0, \ 0 \ \text{for} \ \ x \geq 0 $$

I have problems to argue why this function is obviously not continuous from the above definition.
Which open set do I choose in it's codomain which is not open in it's domain?
 
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The set (-1/2,1/2) (or any open set containing zero and not 1) has as its inverse image [0,\infty) which is not open.

Basically as long as you include a small open set around a discontinuity you are good to go if the set is small enough.
 
Office_Shredder said:
The set (-1/2,1/2) (or any open set containing zero and not 1) has as its inverse image [0,\infty) which is not open.

Basically as long as you include a small open set around a discontinuity you are good to go if the set is small enough.

Thanks! It's clear now. My confusion lied in trying to construct open sets in the image of f instead of the codomain.
 
A sphere as topological manifold can be defined by gluing together the boundary of two disk. Basically one starts assigning each disk the subspace topology from ##\mathbb R^2## and then taking the quotient topology obtained by gluing their boundaries. Starting from the above definition of 2-sphere as topological manifold, shows that it is homeomorphic to the "embedded" sphere understood as subset of ##\mathbb R^3## in the subspace topology.

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