[Math] Is the least upper bound of a set necessarily outside the set

elementary-set-theoryreal-analysis

I'm reading a book on Real Analysis, which has the following definition of least upper bound:

Definition of least upper bound

The paragraph after the bullet points leads me to understand that the least upper bound of a subset of the reals is necessarily outside the set. The paragraph after that leads me to understand the least upper bound is inside the set.

Is it necessarily one or the other?

I'm thinking open sets like $(0,1)$ have a least upper bound of one, which is outside the set, and sets with closed bounds like $(0,1]$ have their least upper bound inside the set.

Am I understand understanding the concept of least upper bounds correctly, at least so far?

Best Answer

It need not be inside or outside as you have illustrated in your example.

In the last paragraph, notice a few keywords of which I will highlight.A non-empty finite subset has a greatest element, in this case, they must be inside the set.

If a set has a greatest element, then it must be inside the set.

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