Bounded Sets and Bounded Functions in a Metric Space

Bounded Sets in a Metric Space

Definition: Let $(M,d)$ be a metric space. A subset Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle S \subseteq M} is said to be Bounded if there exists a positive real number Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle r > 0} such that $S\subseteq B(x,r)$ for some $x\in M$. The set $S$ is said to be Unbounded if it is not bounded.

By the definition above, we see that $S$ is bounded if there exists some open ball with a finite radius that contains $S$.

For example, consider the metric space Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle (M, d)} where Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle d} is the discrete metric defined for all $x,y\in M$ by:

Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \begin{align} \quad d(x, y) = \left\{\begin{matrix} 0 & \mathrm{if} \; x = y\\ 1 & \mathrm{if} \; x \neq y \end{matrix}\right. \end{align}}

Let Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle S \subseteq M} . Then by the definition of the discrete metric, for all $x,y\in S$ we have that Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle d(x, y) \leq 1} . Therefore, if we consider any point Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle x \in S} and take $r=2$ then:

Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \begin{align} \quad S \subseteq B(x, 2) \end{align}}

Therefore, Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle S} is bounded. This shows that every subset of $M$ is bounded with respect to the discrete metric. In fact, the wholeset Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle M} is also bounded and Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle M \subseteq B(x, 2)} for any $x\in M$.

For another example, consider the metric space Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle (\mathbb{R}^3, d)} where Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle d} is the Euclidean metric. Consider the following set:

${\begin{aligned}\quad S=\{(x,y,z)\in \mathbb {R} ^{3}:x,y,z\geq 0\}\subseteq \mathbb {R} ^{3}\end{aligned}}$

The set Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle S} above is the first octant of $\mathbb {R} ^{3}$, and is actually unbounded. To prove this, suppose that instead $S$ is bounded. Then there exists a maximal distance between some pair of points Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \mathbf{x}, \mathbf{y} \in S} , say:

Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \begin{align} \quad d_{\mathrm{max}} = d(\mathbf{x}, \mathbf{y}) \end{align}}

Then $S\subseteq B(x,d_{\mathrm {max} })$. For Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle k > 1} consider the point Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle k\mathbf{y} = (kx_1, kx_2, kx_3) \in \mathbb{R}^3} . Then:

${\begin{aligned}\quad d(\mathbf {x} ,k\mathbf {y} )={\sqrt {(x_{1}-ky_{1})^{2}+(x_{2}-ky_{2})^{2}+(x_{3}-ky_{3})^{2}}}\end{aligned}}$

Since Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle (x_i - ky_1)^2 \geq (x_i - y_i)^2} for each Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle i \in \{1, 2, 3 \}} we see that:

Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \begin{align} \quad d(\mathbf{x}, k\mathbf{y}) \geq d(\mathbf{x}, \mathbf{y}) = d_{\mathrm{max}} \end{align}}

But then Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \mathbf{y} \not \in B(\mathbf{x}, d_{\mathrm{max}})} implies Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \mathbf{y} \not \in S} which is a contradiction. Therefore our assumption that Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle S} was bounded is false.

Licensing

Content obtained and/or adapted from:

• Bounded Sets in a Metric Space, mathonline.wikidot.com under a CC BY-SA license