[Math] Open set as a countable union of spheres

general-topologymetric-spaces

Could you tell me how to prove that each open set can is a countable union of open balls: $ K\left( x,r \right) = \left\{ y \in \mathbb{R} ^{n} | \ d(x,y) <r \right\}$ where d is the Euclid metric?

I know that $U$ is an open set if $\ int \ U=U$

and for $E \subset \mathbb{R}, \ \ $ $intE=\bigcup \left\{K \ | \ K\subset E \ \right\} $ (K as defined above).

Best Answer

$U$ is open, so for each $x \in U$, there exists $r > 0$ such that $K(x,r) \subset U$. Now you can find rational elements $p,q$ ($p \in \mathbb Q^n, q \in \mathbb Q$) such that $K(p,q) \subset K(x,r)$ and $x \in K(p,q)$.

This means that you can express $U$ as the union of such $K(p,q)$. And there are only countably many rational pairs $(p,q)$.

(This is basically the same as Pambos's answer, it just uses more words.)