NAME, Family: RAY Given: NIGE NUMBER: 007

MATH20122: WEEK FOUR TEST 2017

Answer both questions; they are worth 20% of your final 20122 mark.
Write on both sides of the paper if necessary. The use of calculators is forbidden.

Question 1 [2 marks each]

Define: (a) The taxi-cab metric d1 on the plane R2 , (b) the triangle inequality for a metric space
(X, d), (c) a closed ball of radius 2 in (X, d), (d) the discrete metric on a set X. (e) What is meant
by the statement that two metrics d and e on X are Lipschitz equivalent?

Answer 1
(a) The taxi-cab metric on R2 is given by

d1 (x, y) = |x1 y1 | + |x2 y2 |

for any x = (x1 , x2 ) and y = (y1 , y2 ) in R2 .

(b) The triangle inequality for any metric space (X, d) states that

d(x, z) d(x, y) + d(y, z)

for any x, y, z X.
(c)] A closed ball of radius 2 in (X, d) is a subset {y : d(x, y) 2} X for some x X.
(d) The discrete metric d on Y is given by
(
0 if x = y
d(x, y) =
6 y
1 if x =

for any x, y Y .
(e) Two metrics d and e on X are Lipschitz equivalent whenever there exist positive constants h, k R
such that
he(x, y) d(x, y) ke(x, y)
for any x, y in X.
NAME, Family: RAY Given: NIGE NUMBER: 007

Question 2 [5 marks each]

(a) Define the metric space B[0, 1] = (X, dsup ) of bounded functions on [0, 1], and prove that dsup is
indeed a metric. Explain why the exponential function exp(x) = ex determines an element of B[0, 1].
(b) Consider the polynomial functions p1 (x) = x, p2 (x) = x2 , and p3 (x) = x3 on [0, 1], and show that
p1 and p3 both belong to the closed ball B 1/4 (p2 ) in B[0, 1]. The positive square root function is given

by sq(x) = | x| for 0 x 1; find the smallest r such that sq belongs to B r (p1 ).
[You may find it helpful to sketch the graphs of some or all of these functions]
Answer 2
(a) The set X consists of all bounded functions f : [0, 1] R; for any two such f and g, the distance
function is defined by
dsup (f, g) = sup |f (x) g(x)|
0x1

To prove that dsup is a metric, note that dsup (f, g) = 0 iff f (x) = g(x) for all 0 x 1, in which case
f = g in X. The fact that dsup (f, g) = dsup (g, f ) follows immediately, since |f (x) g(x)| = |g(x) f (x)|
for all 0 x 1.
For the triangle inequality, consider any f , g and h in X, and any w in [0, 1]. Then

|f (w) h(w)| |f (w) g(w)| + |g(w) h(w)| sup |f (x) g(x)| + sup |g(x) h(x)|.
0x1 0x1

So |f (w) h(w)| dsup (f, g) + dsup (g, h) for all w [0, 1]; hence

dsup (f, h) dsup (f, g) + dsup (g, h)

as required.
The function exp has value e0 = 1 at x = 0, e1 = e at x = 1 and derivative ex > 0 inbetween; so it
is bounded by |ex | e on [0, 1], and hence lies in B[0, 1].

(b) Note that dsup (p1 , p2 ) = sup0x1 |x x2 | is given by the maximum of x x2 on [0, 1]; this
occurs where 0 = d(x x2 )/dx = 1 2x, namely x = 1/2, because d2 (x x2 )/dx2 = 2 < 0. So
dsup (p1 , p2 ) = 1/2 1/22 = 1/4.
By analogy, dsup (p3 , p2 ) is given by the maximum of x2 x3 on [0, 1], because x2 x3 . Furthermore
x x3 = x(x x2 ), where x 1 is given and x x2 1/4 from above. So dsup (p1 , p2 ) 1 1/4 = 1/4.
2

Finally, d(sq, p1 ) is given by the maximum of sq(x) x on [0, 1]. But 0 x 1 iff 0 y 1, where
y = sq(x); so max0x1 (sq(x) x) =max0y1 (y y 2 ) = 1/4 from above. Thus sq lies in B r (p1 ) for
any r 1/4.

Amongst many alternative solutions are:

By analogy, dsup (p3 , p2 ) is given by the maximum of x2 x3 on [0, 1], because x2 x3 ; this occurs
where 0 = d(x2 x3 )/dx = 2x 3x2 , namely x = 0 or 2/3. But d2 (x2 x3 )/dx2 = 2 6x < 0 only for
x > 1/3, so the maximum is at x = 2/3; hence dsup (p3 , p2 ) = (2/3)2 (2/3)3 = 4/27 < 1/4, because
16 < 27. So both p1 and p3 lie in B 1/4 (p2 ).
Finally, d(sq, p1 ) is given by the maximum of x1/2 x on [0, 1]; this occurs where x1/2 /2 = 1, namely
x = 1/4, because d2 (x1/2 x)/dx2 = x3/2 /4 < 0 for x = 1/4. Thus d(sq, p1 ) = 1/2 1/4 = 1/4,
and sq lies in B r (p1 ) for any r 1/4.