Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics

3MS Metric Spaces

Tutorial 2 1. Consider the metric space X = (Q [0, 3], dE ): (a) Is the point 2 an interior point of the subset A of X where A = {x Q | 1 x 3}? (b) Is the point 2 an interior point of the subset B of X where B = {x Q | 2 x 3}? (c) Is the point 3 an interior point of the subset C of X where C = {x Q | 2 < x 3 }? (d) Describe the possible forms that an open ball can take in X = (Q [0, 3], dE ). 2. Prove each of the following statements where true, otherwise given an example to show it false. (a) If d1 and d2 are metrics on a set X then d1 + d2 is a metric on X . (b) If A, as a subspace of X , has discrete topology, then X has discrete topology. (c) If X has discrete topology then every subspace of X has discrete topology. 3. (a) Show that if x X , where X is any metric space, then X {x} is an open set. (b) You already know that an intersection of open sets need not be open (see the remark after Proposition 2.7). So one might wonder if one can characterize those subsets of a metric space which do arise as intersections of open ones. Heres the answer: Prove that every subset of a metric space can be expressed as an intersection of open sets. 4. Let X be the metric space ({1, 2, 3}, dE ). (a) Write down X i.e. all the open sets of X . Do you recognise this topology? (b) Can you nd two more metrics on the set {1, 2, 3} which give the same topology as that given by dE ? (c) Can you nd a metric on the set {1, 2, 3} which gives a dierent topology? (Answer this before looking at Proposition 2.11 of the notes.) (d) Can you nd a dierent topology on the set {1, 2, 3} i.e. where we do not require that the topology arises from a metric (Hint: this shouldnt be dicult there are 29 topologies on this set and only one of them arises from a metric!) 28 February 2014

5. In question 4 you will have realised, as stated in Proposition 2.11 later, that every nite metric space has discrete topology. Can this result be extended to a countably innite metric space? After all both N and Z, both with the metric dE , have discrete topology. The following two questions should clarify this:
1 (a) Does the metric space ({ n }nN , dE ) have discrete topology? 1 }nN , dE ) have discrete topology? (b) Does the metric space ({0} { n

6. Let X be a non-empty set containing at least two elements, and let a and b be xed but dierent points in X . (a) Show that the family T = {U PX | a U } {} is a topology on X . (b) Is the family T = {U PX | a U or b U } {} a topology on X ?