METRIC SPACES (MATH0041): PROBLEM SHEET 1

1. In each of the following cases, say whether (X; d) is a metric space or not. If it is not,
say which of the axioms fail.


a. X = R 2 ; d (x; y ); (x0; y 0 ) = jy y 0 j.
b. X = C ; d(z1 ; z2 ) = jz1 z2 j.
c. X = Q ; d(x; y ) = (x y )3 .
d. X = C ; d(z1 ; z2 ) = minfjz1 j + jz2 j; jz1 1j + jz2 1jg if z1 6= z2 , d(z; z ) = 0.
Ry
e. X = R ; d(x; y ) = j x f (t) dtj, where f : R ! R is a given positive integrable function.
2. If k 2N we can dene the k-norm k kk on R n by
:

r
Xn
k(x1 ; : : : ; x k
n) k =
k
i=1
j i jk
x

Believe that the k-norm is a norm on R n . (If you want a proof, look up Holder's inequality
in a book on analysis.) Draw the sets

(x; y ) 2 R 2 j k(x; y )kk 1
for k = 1; 2; 3. What does this set look like if k is very large?
3. A metric d on a space X is called an ultrametric if in fact d(x; y )  maxfd(x; z ); d(y; z )g
for all x; y; z 2 X . Is the Euclidean metric on R n an ultrametric? Show that given any set
X there is an ultrametric d on X . Show that the 2-adic metric on Z, given by d(m; n) = 2
k

if 2 divides n m exactly k times, is an ultrametric.

4. Let
R
C [0; 1] denote the set of all continuous functions
 21
f : [0; 1] ! R. Dene k k2 =
f

. Show that kf k2 is a norm on

1 2
0 f (t) dt C [0; 1].
5. If (X; d) is a metric space and Y  X is non-empty, let dY : Y  Y ! R be the
restriction of d : X  X ! R to Y  Y . Show carefully that (Y ; dY ) is a metric space.
6. Give an example of a metric on a real vector space V which does not come from any
norm on V .

GKS, 4/10/01