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Metric spaces and open sets

Distance made abstract; open balls, open and closed sets, continuity.

A metric is any distance obeying symmetry, positivity and the triangle inequality. Open sets are unions of open balls; a function is continuous when preimages of open sets are open. No ε needed once the open sets are known. Picture it: the open disc around a point, and the same idea with the "taxicab" distance making diamonds. Think it: topology keeps the open sets and throws the metric away.

Worked example · distance between (1,2) and (4,6)

Geometry · Coordinate-Geometry

Distance between (1,2) and (4,6)

1,\ 2,\ 4,\ 6

Step by step

  1. \Delta x = 3,\ \Delta y = 4

    Differences of the coordinates.

  2. d = \sqrt{\Delta x^2 + \Delta y^2} = \sqrt{9 + 16} = 5

    Distance formula (Pythagoras).

Reveal the answer
d = 5

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How to: Metric spaces and open sets

  1. Differences of the coordinates.
  2. Distance formula (Pythagoras).

Questions people ask

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Each can be deformed into the other without cutting or gluing: one hole each. Topology studies exactly the properties such deformations preserve.

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