I made a picture of the problem here:
If the link does not work, read this:
Let $a$ be a non-zero vector in $\mathbb{R}^n$. Let S be the set of all orthogonal vectors to $a$ in $\mathbb{R}^n$. I.e., for all $x \in \mathbb{R}^n$, $a\cdot x = 0$
Prove that the interior of S is empty.
How can I show that for every point in S, all "close" points are either in the complement of S or in S itself?
This is what I attempted:
Let $u\in B(r,x) = \\{ v \in \mathbb{R}^n : |v - x| < r \\} $
So $|u - x| < r$
Then, $|a||u - x| < |a|r$.
By Cauchy-Schwarz, $|a\cdot(u-x)| \leq |a||u - x|$.
Then, $|a\cdot u - a\cdot x| < |a|r$.
If $u\in S$, then either $u\in S^{\text{int}}$ or $u\in \delta S$. ($\delta$ denotes boundary).
If $u\in S^{\text{int}}$, then $B(r,x) \subset S$, and $a\cdot u = 0$. But then the inequality becomes $|a|r > 0$ which implies $B(r,x) \subset S \forall r > 0$, but this is impossible since it would also imply that $S = \mathbb{R}^n$ and $S^c$ is empty, which is false. Therefore, if $u\in S$, then $u\in\delta S$.
Hence, $\forall u\in B(r, x)$ such that $u\in S$, $u\in\delta S$. Thus $S^{\text{int}}$ is empty.