Had a quick question @TedShifrin, with regards to a question in the text and your favorite aspect....formalism. It was Sec 2.2 - 1)c: The question asks to determine if the set $C = \{(x,y): y > 0 \}$ is open, closed, or neither. So I've chosen to show it is open.
Using the idea of the open rectangle, I've worked out to let $\delta = |b|$, where I'm taking $\mathbf{a} = (a,b)$ to be the middle of my open rectangle.(I should probably use $\frac{|b|}{2}$ to be safe, but anyways...)
So if I let $\mathbf{x} \in R(\mathbf{a}, |b|)$ (where $R$ is for rectangle), then I only concern myself with…