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Definition and Examples of Metric Spaces: Previous Page Next Page

This document defines and provides examples of metric spaces. [1] A metric space is a set with a distance function that satisfies three properties: non-negativity, symmetry, and the triangle inequality. [2] Examples of metric spaces include the real line with the usual distance, the plane with the Euclidean distance or taxi cab metric, and spaces of continuous functions with various distance functions between functions. [3] Metrics allow abstracting and generalizing geometric notions of distance to more complex spaces.

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246 views3 pages

Definition and Examples of Metric Spaces: Previous Page Next Page

This document defines and provides examples of metric spaces. [1] A metric space is a set with a distance function that satisfies three properties: non-negativity, symmetry, and the triangle inequality. [2] Examples of metric spaces include the real line with the usual distance, the plane with the Euclidean distance or taxi cab metric, and spaces of continuous functions with various distance functions between functions. [3] Metrics allow abstracting and generalizing geometric notions of distance to more complex spaces.

Uploaded by

Daban Abdwlla
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Metric and Topological Spaces

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Contents
(Revision of real analysis ) (Convergence in metric spaces)

Definition and examples of metric spaces


One measures distance on the line R by:
The distance from a to b is |a - b|.

Some important properties of this idea are abstracted into:

Definition
A metric space is a set X together with a function d (called a metric or "distance function") which assigns
a real number d(x, y) to every pair x, y X satisfying the properties (or axioms):

1. d(x, y) 0 and d(x, y) = 0 x = y,


2. d(x, y) = d(y, x),
3. d(x, y) + d(y, z) d(x, z).

Remarks
The last property is called the triangle inequality because (when applied to R2
with the usual metric) it says that the sum of two sides of a triangle is at least as
big as the third side.

Examples

1. The prototype: the line R with its usual distance d(x, y) = |x - y|.

2. The plane R2 with the "usual distance" (measured using Pythagoras's


theorem):
d((x1 , y1), (x2 , y2)) = [(x1 - x2)2 + (y1 - y2)2].
This is sometimes called the 2-metric d2 .

3. The same picture will give metric on the complex numbers C interpreted as the Argand diagram. In
this case the formula for the metric is now:
d(z, w) = |z - w|
where the | | in the formula represent the modulus of the complex number rather than the absolute
value of a real number.

4. The plane with the taxi cab metric d((x1 , y1), (x2 , y2)) = |x1 - x2| + |y1 - y2|.
This is often called the 1-metric d1 .
5. The plane with the supremum or maximum metric d((x1 , y1), (x2 , y2)) =
max(|x1 - x2|, |y1 - y2| ).
It is often called the infinity metric d .

These last examples turn out to be used a lot. To understand them it


helps to look at the unit circles in each metric.
That is the sets { x R2 | d(0, x) = 1 }.
We get the following picture:

6. Take X to be any set.


The discrete metric on the X is given by : d(x, y) = 0 if x = y and d(x, y) = 1 otherwise.
Then this does define a metric, in which no distinct pair of points are "close".
The fact that every pair is "spread out" is why this metric is called discrete.

7. Metrics on spaces of functions


These metrics are important for many of the applications in analysis.
Let C[0, 1] be the set of all continuous R-valued functions on the interval [0, 1].
We define metrics on by analogy with the above examples by:
a. d1(f, g) = |f(x) - g(x)| dx

So the distance between functions is the area between their


graphs.

b. d2(f, g) = [ (f(x) - g(x))2 dx]

Although this does not have such case straight forward geometric interpretation as the last
example, this case turns out to be the most important in practice. It corresponds to who doing
a "least squares approximation".

c. d (f, g) = max {|f(x) - g(x))| | 0 x 1 }


Geometrically, this is the largest distance between the graphs.
Remarks

1. The triangle inequality does hold for these metrics


2. As in the R2 case one may define dp for any p 1 and get a metric.

Now we can do some analysis in this new environment.

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Contents
(Revision of real analysis ) (Convergence in metric spaces)

JOC February 2004

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