Paper 1, Section II, E

Metric and Topological Spaces
Part IB, 2015

Give the definition of a metric on a set XX and explain how this defines a topology on XX.

Suppose (X,d)(X, d) is a metric space and UU is an open set in XX. Let x,yXx, y \in X and ϵ>0\epsilon>0 such that the open ball Bϵ(y)UB_{\epsilon}(y) \subseteq U and xBϵ/2(y)x \in B_{\epsilon / 2}(y). Prove that yBϵ/2(x)Uy \in B_{\epsilon / 2}(x) \subseteq U.

Explain what it means (i) for a set SS to be dense in XX, (ii) to say B\mathcal{B} is a base for a topology T\mathcal{T}.

Prove that any metric space which contains a countable dense set has a countable basis.