Re:Mathematical “urban legends”
by raldi on Friday October 31, 2014 @07:59PM
(#8541693)
Can someone explain the introductory story? Why is it significant that the spaces were finite?
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From my recollection of topology, finite spaces are mostly useful as demonstrations or counter-examples. So, to illustrate a point about why something isn't true, you might break out a finite space to provide an easy-to-understand means of grasping the counter-example (there's an entire book called Counterexamples in Topology for this purpose).
"Real work" in topology generally involves infinite spaces, though.