Metric Spaces

Back to Table of Contents A metric space is defined to be a pair (M,d) where M is a set (whose members are called points) and d is a real valued function on pairs of points of M, such that the following conditions hold:
  1. Symmetry. If p,q are points, then d(p,q) = d(q,p). We write pq for d(p,q), so the symmetry condition can be written as: pq = qp
  2. Triangle Inequality. For any three points p,q,r in M: pr <= pq + qr
  3. If pq = 0, then p = q.