Metrics
A metric on some set is a function which is supposed to give a well-formed notion of distance.
Formally, a function d:A2→R is a metric as long as:
d(x,y)≥0 always holds
d(x,y)=0 holds
exactly when x=y
d(x,y)+d(y,z)≥d(x,z)
The last condition is known as the triangle inequality and is perhaps motivated by the following picture:
If one wants to go from x to z, it is never more efficient to take a detour.
The distance
d(x,X) between a point
x∈A and a
collection X⊆A is
defined to be
d(x,X):=y∈Xinfd(x,y)
For any fixed
X, the
function d(−,X) is
continuous in the metric
topology