Lecture 1 : Metric Space

Let X be a non-empty set. A function d : X × X → R is called a metric if

the following conditions holds:
M1: Positivity: For any distinct x, y, ∈ X, d(x, y) > 0
M2: For any x ∈ X, d(x, x) = 0
M3: Symmetry: d(x, y) = d(y, x)
M4: Triangle inequality: For any x, y, z ∈ X, d(x, y) ≤ d(x, z) + d(z, y).
Then, (X, d) is called a metric space.

Examples:
1. X = R and d(x, y) = |x − y| is the distance between two points in the real
line.
n
2. X = Rn and d(x, y) = |xi − yi | is called Manhattan metric in Rn .
P
i=1
n 1
3. X = Rn and d(x, y) = ( (xi − yi )2 ) 2 = ||x − y|| is called the Euclidean
P
i=1
n
metric in R .

4. X = Rn and d(x, y) = sup{|xi − yi | : i = 1, 2, . . . , n} = ||x − y||∞ is called

Supremum metric in Rn .

 a metric on a non empty set X such that for all x, y ∈ X,

5. Let d be
 0 if x = y
d(x, y) = . This is known as discrete metric on X.
 1 if x 6= y

1
Definition 1. Let (X, d) be a metric space and {x(n) } be a sequence of points
in X. We say that the sequence {x(n) } converges to a point x with respect to
the metric d if and only if the limit lim d(x(n) , x) exists and is equal to 0. In
n→∞
other words, a sequence {xn } in a metric space (X, d) is said to converge to
a point x if for every  > 0 there is an N ∈ N such that d(xn , x) <  for all
n ≥ N.
q
(n)=( n1 , n1 ) 2 1 1
Example: Let {x } be a sequence in R . Then, lim n2 + n2 =
n→∞
√
2
lim = 0. So, the sequence converges to the point (0, 0) with respect
n→∞ n
to Euclidean metric. However, the sequence does not converge to (0, 0) in
discrete metric since lim d(x(n) , (0, 0)) = 1 6= 0.
n→∞

Proposition 1. Let X be any set and d be discrete metric on X. Let {x(n) }

be a sequence of points in X and x ∈ X. Then the sequence {x(n) } converges
to a point x with respect to the discrete metric d if and only if there is an
N ∈ N such that x(n) = x for all n ≥ N .

Proposition 2. Let (X, d) be a metric space and {x(n) } be a sequence of

points in X. Suppose that there are two points x, x̄ in X such that the se-
quence {x(n) } converges to point x and x̄ with respect to metric d. Then
x = x̄.

Definition 2. Two metrics d1 and d2 on the same space X are strongly

equivalent if there exist constants 0 < c1 ≤ c2 < ∞ such that c1 d1 (x, y) ≤
d2 (x, y) ≤ c2 d1 (x, y) for all x, y ∈ X.

2
 n 1
(xi − yi )2 ) 2 = ||x − y|| and
P
Consider the two metrics d1 (x, y) = (
i=1
d2 (x, y) = sup{|xi −yi | : i = 1, 2, . . . , n} = ||x−y||∞ in Rn . Then, ||x−y||∞ ≤
√
||x − y|| ≤ n||x − y||∞ . So, these are strongly equivalent metrics on Rn .

Proposition 3. Suppose that {x(k) } be a sequence of points in Rn and x(k) =

(k) (k) (k)
(x1 , x2 , . . . , xn ). Then the sequence {x(k) } converges to a point x = (x1 , x2 , . . . , xn )
(k)
if and only if the sequences {xi } converges to xi for each i = 1, 2, . . . , n.