METRIC SPACES

Problems 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 16 on pages 43 and 44 of the text book Principles of

Mathematical Analysis by Walter Rudin. Also:
1. Let X = R2 and for p = (x1 , x2 ), q = (y1 , y2 ),

|x2 | + |y2 | + |x1 y1 | if x1 6= y1
d(p, q) =
|x2 y2 |
if x1 = y1 .
Show that d is a metric on X. Illustrate by diagrams in the plane what the open balls
are.
2. Let X be any set and d be the discrete metric. What are the open sets, what are the
closed sets?
3. Let X be the set of all continuous functions f : [0, 1] R. For f, g X, define
Z 1
d(f, g) =
|f (t) g(t)| dt.
0

Prove that d is a metric on X.

4. Let X be a non-empty set. Assume for every pair of points x, y X there is a unique
real number d(x, y) with the following properties:
(i) d(x, y) = 0 x = y, and
(ii) d(x, z) d(x, y) + d(z, y) for all x, y, z X.
Show that d is a metric on X.
5. Let (X1 , d1 ) and (X2 , d2 ) be two metric spaces. Let X = X1 X2 , i.e., X is the set of
all ordered pairs x = (x1 , x2 ) where x1 X1 and x2 X2 . Define d and d as follows: let
x = (x1 , x2 ), y = (y1 , y2 ) X.
d(x, y) = max{d1 (x1 , y1 ), d2 (x2 , y2 )} and d(x, y) = d1 (x1 , y1 ) + d2 (x2 , y2 ).
Show that d and d are metrics on X.
6. Let (X, d) be a metric space. Show that all subsets of X are open if and only if every
subset of X which consists of a single point is open.
7. Let X = X1 X2 , and d and d be as in Exercise 5. Show that a subset E X is open
in (X, d) if and only if it is open in (X, d).
8. Let X = R2 , d = d2 , and E = {(x1 , x2 ) : x1 > x2 }. Show that E is open in X.
9. Let E be a subset of a metric space. We define the boundary of E as E = E E c .
Show that

a) Show that X = int(E) int(E c ) E and the three sets on the right hand side are
pairwise disjoint.
b) E is closed E E.
c) E is open E E = .
10. For the following sets E R, find E 0 , E, int(E) and E.
(a) E = N,
(b) E = Q,
(c) E = R \ Q,
(d) E = (0, 1),
(e) E = [0, 1],
(f) E = [0, 1) {2, 3},
(g) E = (1, 0) (0, 1).
11. For the following sets E R2 , find E 0 , E, int(E) and E.
(a) E = {(x, y) : 1 < x2 + y 2 4},
(b) E = {(x, y) : x > 0, xy = 1},
(c) E = {(x, y) : x, y Q},
(d) E = {(x, y) : y = 0},
(e) E = {(x, y) : p
x Q},
(f) E = {(x, y) : x2 + y 2 is rational},
(g) E = {(x, y) : 1/x is an integer},
(h) E = {(x, y) : x2 + y 2 < 1, and y < 0}.
12. Let X = R and E be as below. Decide whether E is open, closed, or neither. If E is
not open, find a point of E which is not an interior point. If E is not closed, find a limit
point of E which is not in E.
a) E = Q,
b) E = N,
c) E = {x : x > 0},
d) E = {x : 0 < x 1},
e) E = {1 + 1/4 + 1/9 + + 1/n2 : n N}.
13. For a bounded nonempty set E X we define the diameter of E as
diam(E) = sup{d(p, q) : p, q E}.
Show that diam(E) = diam(E).
14. Let (X, d) be a metric space, Br (x) be a fixed open ball and E be a subset of X such
that diam(E) < r. Prove that E B2r (x).
15. Show that
(i) int(A B) = int(A) int(B),
(ii) int(A B) int(A) int(B). Give an example which shows that this inclusion may
be proper.

16. Let (X, d) be a metric space, let x be a point of X, and let r be a positive real
number. One is inclined to believe that the closure of the open ball Br (x) is the closed
ball Br [x]. Give an example to show that this is not necessarily true.
17. Identify which of the following sets are compact and which are not. If E is not
compact, find an open cover of E which does not have any finite subcover.
a) E = {(x, y) R2 : 4 x2 + y 2 9},
b) E = {(x, y) R2 : 4 x2 + y 2 < 9},
c) E = {(x, y) R2 : 0 < x 1 and y = sin(1/x)},
d) E = {(x, y) R2 : |xy| 1}.
18. Given two non-empty subsets A and B of a metric space, we define the distance
between them as
dist(A, B) = inf{d(x, y) : x A, y B}.
Assume further that B is compact. Show the following:
dist(A, B) = 0 A B 6= .
19. Let A and B two nonempty, compact subsets of a metric space such that A B = .
a) Show that dist(A, B) > 0.
b) Show that there are two open sets U and V such that A U , B V and U V = .
20. Identify which of the following sets are connected and which are not. If E is not
connected, find two nonempty separated sets A and B such that E = A B.
a) In X = R, E = Q,
b) In X = R2 , E = B1 (p1 )B1 (p2 ){(x, 0) : 1 < x < 1}, where p1 = (2, 0), p2 = (2, 0),
c) In X = R2 , E = {(x, y) : 0 < y x2 , x 6= 0} {(0, 0)},
d) In X = R2 , E = {(x, y) : y = sin(1/x), x 6= 0} {(0, y) : 1 y 1}.
21. Show that the intersection of two connected sets in R is connected. Show that this
is false if R is replaced by R2 .
22. Show that if E R is connected, then int(E) is also connected. Show that this is
false if R is replaced by R2 .
23. Let E be a connected subset of a metric space X, and let A be any subset of X such
that E A E. Show that A is also connected.