# Is $(-\infty,\infty)$ a closed **interval**?

Note that we are working in the reals, not the extended reals.

Do you understand a closed interval as "an interval that is a closed set" or as "an interval that includes both its endpoints"? If the former, then you would consider $(-\infty,\infty)$ to be a closed interval. If the latter, then you would not consider $(-\infty,\infty)$ to be a closed interval.

I belong to the latter camp, but I would like to get some consensus here, if possible. (I have been graded down for this, have asked around, and I am surprised that everyone I've consulted calls $(-\infty,\infty)$ a closed interval. Am I really crazy?)

p.s. To be very clear, I am not asking if $(-\infty,\infty)$ is a closed set -- it sure is.

• There is another (better) definition saying that an interval (or more genreally any subset) is closed if it contains all its limit point. So in this case $(-\infty, \infty)$ is also closed. – user99914 Oct 29 '13 at 5:39
• @John Your definition is equivalent to the first one I gave (since closed sets are precisely the sets that include all their limit points). – Ryan Oct 29 '13 at 5:45
• @Ryan: If an interval is a closed set then it is a close-interval! because an interval is either open-interval, hence an open set , otherwise a one-sided open-interval which is not a closed-set. – Souvik Dey Oct 29 '13 at 6:00
• You have already answered your own question. If one accepts the first definition, then $\Bbb R$ is a closed interval. If one accepts the second definition, then $\Bbb R$ is not a "closed interval," although it is an interval that is a closed set. Both definitions are offered in practice. However the second definition creates the unfortunate and unintended circumstance that a closed interval is not a "closed interval." Thus, it is more technically sensible to accept the first definition. In practice, I believe the first is used more often by the more careful authors. – anon Oct 29 '13 at 6:01
• @Ryan It seems to me that the all the comments and answers understand closed interval as equivalent to closed set. If you're looking for consensus, or for which definition is more broadly used then I think you have your answer. – in_mathematica_we_trust Oct 29 '13 at 6:10

• BTW by this reasoning $[0,-1]$ is not a closed interval. – sdcvvc Oct 29 '13 at 11:06