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Compactness and Continuity in Metric Spaces

The document contains solutions to 7 problems about continuity in metric spaces: 1. It proves that a union of finitely many compact sets is compact. 2. It proves that a convergent sequence in a metric space is Cauchy. 3. It analyzes the limit of the identity function from R to R with different metrics. 4. It proves that a function from a finite space to another space cannot be continuous. 5. It proves that composition of continuous functions is continuous. 6. It proves that the identity function from R to R is continuous. 7. It proves that a function summing coordinates in Rk is continuous.

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Mengyao Ma
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12 views2 pages

Compactness and Continuity in Metric Spaces

The document contains solutions to 7 problems about continuity in metric spaces: 1. It proves that a union of finitely many compact sets is compact. 2. It proves that a convergent sequence in a metric space is Cauchy. 3. It analyzes the limit of the identity function from R to R with different metrics. 4. It proves that a function from a finite space to another space cannot be continuous. 5. It proves that composition of continuous functions is continuous. 6. It proves that the identity function from R to R is continuous. 7. It proves that a function summing coordinates in Rk is continuous.

Uploaded by

Mengyao Ma
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© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

ECON 5100 Assignment 3 Solution

HKUST
September 23, 2022

Problem 1. Prove that any union of finitely many compact sets is also compact.

Solution. Let A1 , . . . , An be compact sets and consider any open cover of A1 ∪ · · · ∪ An . This open cover
must cover each Ai individually, and because each Ai is compact, there must be a finite subcover of each
Ai . The union of these n subcovers is finite, and clearly it covers A1 ∪ · · · ∪ An . Therefore every open cover
of A1 ∪ · · · ∪ An has a finite subcover, so A1 ∪ · · · ∪ An is compact.

Problem 2. Prove that if (xi ) is a convergent sequence in (S, d), then it is also Cauchy in (S, d)

Solution. Denote the limit of (xi ) as x. By definition of limits, ∀ > 0, ∃N ∈ N such that d (x, xi ) <
/2∀i > N . Then d (xi , xj ) ≤ d (xi , x)+d (x, xj ) < ∀i, j > N (’triangle inequality’). Thus (xi ) is Cauchy.

Problem 3. Consider f : R → R where f (x) = x. Does f have a limit at 0 if we use dD for the domain
and dE for the co-domain? How about if we use dE for the domain and dD for the co-domain?

Solution. By the definition of limits, y0 is the limit of f at x0 if only if for any  > 0 we can find some δ > 0
such that f (x) ∈ B (y0 ) ∀x
 ∈ Bδ (x0 ) \ {x0 }. 
Note B (y0 ) = B (x0 ) = x : dE (x0 , x) <  = (x0 − , x0 + ) using dE and B (y0 ) = B (x0 ) = x : dD (x0 , x) <  =
{x0 } using dD .

(a) f has no limit with dD for the domain and dE for the co-domain: Pick any  > 0, B (y0 ) = {x0 } ∀ > 0
when co-domain is dE . For any δ > 0, {f (x) : x ∈ Bδ (x0 ) \ {x0 }} = (x0 − δ, x0 + δ) \ {x0 } . (x0 − δ, x0 + δ) \ {x0 }∩
{x0 } = ∅∀δ > 0. Thus, f has no limit.

(b) f has no limit with dE for the domain and dD for the co-domain: Pick any  > 0, B (y0 ) = (x0 − , x0 + ) ∀ >
0 when co-domen is dD . For any δ > 0, {f (x) : x ∈ Bδ (x0 ) \ {x0 }} = {x0 } \ {x0 } = ∅. Thus, f has no
limit.

Problem 4. Consider two metric spaces (X, dX ) and (Y, dY ). Show that if |X| is finite, then there does
not exist a function f : X → Y that is continuous.

Solution. If |X| = 1, for any δ > 0, Bδ (x)/{x} = ∅ and f is not continuous. If |X| ≥ 2, then for any x ∈ X,
the set M = {d(x, y) | y 6= x} is a finite set with at least one element. Hence, it has a minimum, say m. Then
{x} = Bδ (x), Bδ (x)/{x} = ∅ and x is not a limit point of X. Thus, f is not continuous at x∀x ∈ X.

Problem 5. Prove that given metric spaces (X, dX ) , (Y, dY ) , (Z, dZ ), if f : X → Y is contiuous at x0 and
g : Y → Z is continuous at f (x0 ), then the composite function g ◦ f : X → Z is continuous at x0 .

Solution. Proof. Let  > 0 be given. Since g is continuous at f (x0 ), there exists η > 0 such that
|y − f (x0 )| < η and y ∈ B implies that |g(y) − g(f (x0 ))| < .

Next, since f is continuous at x0 , there exists δ > 0 such that |x − x0 | < δ and x ∈ A implies that |f (x) −
f (x0 )| < η.

Combing these inequalities, we get that |x − x0 | < δ and x ∈ A implies that |g(f (x)) − g(f (x0 ))| < ,
which proves that g ◦ f is continuous at x0 .

1
Problem 6. Prove that the function f : R → R where f (x) = x is continuous.

Solution. Pick any  > 0, choose δ = , then |f (x) − f (x0 )| = |x − x0 | < ∀x ∈ {x : |x − x0 | < δ & x 6= x0 }

Pk
Problem 7. Prove that the function f : Rk → R where f (x1 , . . . , xk ) = i=1 xi is continuous.
2 Pk 2
Solution. Pick any  > 0, choose δ = /k |x − x0 | < /k implies |x − x0 | = i=1 (xi − x0i ) < 2 /k 2 . Then
2 Pk Pk
(xi − x0i )< 2 /k 2 and |xi − x0i | < /k∀i ∈ {1, 2, · · · , k}. Then we have |f (x) − f (x0 )| = i=1 xi − i=1 x0i =

P
k Pk
i=1 (xi − x0i ) ≤ 0 n
i=1 |xi − xi | < k × /k =  In conclusion, for any x ∈ R , ∃δ such that f (x ) ∈
0

0
B (f (x))∀x ∈ Bδ (x)\{x}.

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