MetricSpaces.PDFVIP

Metric Spaces Math 413 Honors Project 1 Metric Spaces De?nition 1.1 Let X be a set. A metric on X is a function d : X × X → R such that for all x, y, z ∈ X: i) d(x, y) = d(y, x); ii) d(x, y) = 0 if and only if x = y; iii) d(x, y) ≤ d(x, z) + d(z, y). If d is a metric on X we call (X, d) a metric space. We think of d(x, y) as the distance from x to y. Metric spaces arise in mathematics in many guises. Many of the basic properties of R that we will study in Math 413 are really properties of metric spaces and it is often useful to understand these ideas in full generality. We already know some natural examples of metric spaces. Exercise 1.2 [Euclidean metric] Suppose x = (x1, . . . , xn), y = (y1, . . . , yn) ∈ Rn. Let n 2 d(x, y) = v (xi ? yi) u uXi=1 . t a) For n = 1 show that d(x, y) = |y ? x| is a metric on R. Note that d is also a metric on Q. In fact d is a metric on Rn. The hard part is showing that iii) holds. For notational simplicity assume n = 2. b) Show that 2xy ≤ x2 + y2 for any x, y ∈ R. 2 2 2 2 c) (Schwartz Inequality) |x1y1 + x2y2| ≤ x1 + x2 y1 + y2 [Hint: we may as well assume all the xi, yi ≥ 0.] p p 1 2 2 d) Use the Schwartz inequlality to show that (x1 + y1) + (x2 + y2) ≤ 1 2 2 2 x1 + x2 + y1 + y2. p 2 p e) Show thatp d is a metric on R . [Hint: Use d) and the fact that xi ?yi = (xi ? zi) + (zi ? yi).] There are other interesting examples. Exercise 1.3 [Discrete Spaces] Let X be any nonempty set. De?ne 0 if x = y d(x, y) =