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Introduction - To - Metric - Spaces (1) - 1

Metric spaces

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10 views

Introduction - To - Metric - Spaces (1) - 1

Metric spaces

Uploaded by

bimasevakendraa
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Introduction to metric spaces

Soumyajit Singha
June 2024

1 Introduction
Respected Ashani Sir, after your introductory class for the research projects in
summer and as per as your instructions I took help from Chat GPT to find three
distance functions. From there I came to know about what is a metric space
and what are actually metric(distance functions) on a preliminary level. I know
you have already given the ideas of euclidean metric and taxi cab metric.You
assigned us to find three more metric(distance function) . The three distance
function I came up with is:-
(1) The Chebyshev metric (2) The French railroad metric (3) The Canberra
Metric.

2 A basic idea on metrics(distance functions)


A metric or a distance function is usually denoted by d(x, y) represents a dis-
tance function on two co-ordinates/ points x and y. A metric must always follow
the four given properties:-
1. d(x, y) >= 0
2.d(x, y) =0 if and only if x=y
3.d(x, y) =d(y, x)
4.d(x, y) + d(y, z) >= d(x, z) (The triangle inequality)
The triangle inequality part satisfies the condition that we can make a right
angle triangle using that metric. Just like we did for the euclidean metric and
the taxi cab metric which was done in the previous class.

3 The Chebyshev metric


The Chebyshev metric is given by the function d(x, y) = max (|x2 −x1 |, |y2 −y1 |)
(Here x and y represents the points on the Cartesian plane where x=(x1 , y1 )
and y= (x2 , y2 ))
Since, the expressions are in absolute value both of them will always be
positive resulting in the verification of the first property of a metric, which
holds true here. The second and the third properties of metric must also hold

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by and it could be easily proved with the basic properties of the absolute value
function. Finally we can also prove the triangular inequality for this metric by
using the triangular inequality for the absolute value function.
By using the Chebyshev method of counting distance on a Cartesian plane
we can use the co- ordinates(0, 0), (4, -2), (2, 3) to form a right- angled triangle.
Well it was pretty obvious that a right angle triangle will exist since it already
follows the triangular inequality. This metric could be used to find the shortest
path for a king to go to a designated square on a chess board. It could be used
to count the minimum path required to pass from a square to another square
on a square grid, given we can travel only through the squares.

4 The French railroad metric


The French railroad metric( or railway metric) is a conceptual distance metric
used to model travel distances in transportation network where all travel paths
through a central hub (similar to how many railroads in France are structured
with Paris as the central hub) .
In context of the Euclidean plane, the French railroad metric between two
points A and B is defined as follows:
1. Identify a central hub point H ( analogous to Paris in the French railway
system) .
2. The distance between any two points A and B is the sum of the euclidean
distance from A to H and from H to B.
Formally if the central hub H has coordinates (hx , hy ) and the two points A
and B have co-ordinates (x1 , y1 ) and (x2 , y2 ) respectively, the French railroad
metric dp is given by:
dp (A, B) = dpe (A, H) + de (B, H) ( Here d
p e represents the euclidean metric.)
dp (A, B) = (x1 − hx )2 + (y1 − hy )2 + (x2 − hx )2 + (y2 − hy )2
Since, this metric is nothing but the sum of two euclidean metric. Thus, the
properties of metric could be easily proved just like it is proved for the euclidean
metric. This metric reflects the structure of travel networks that are centralized
around a major hub, making it a useful model for understanding and optimizing
the transportation systems that operate in a similar fashion.

5 The Canberra metric


The Canberra metric is given by the function d(x, y) = | |x|x22|+|x
−x1 |
1|
| + | |y|y22|+|y
−y1 |
1|
|(Here
x and y represent two points on the Cartesian plane, x=(x1 , y1 ) and y=(x2 , y2 ))
Let x-axis of the plane denote the distance of a places from the grocery
store and the y-axis denote the denote the distance of a place from the hospi-
tal(keeping kilometer as a unit distance) . Considering that both grocery store
and hospital are adjacent representing the origin in the Cartesian plane. In this
way we can easily represent each house/places in the neighborhood by a point in
the Cartesian co-ordinate. Now let’s say a house is 1KM away from the hospital

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and 0.5 Km away from the grocery store and another house is 2 Km away from
the hospital and 1.5 Km away from the grocery store. Using Canberra distance
to compare the relative difference in accessibility we find that their Canberra
distance is 0.833.This numbers could be useful for finding room rents I think.
The Canberra metric could be used to count the relative distances. Suppose
we want to compare the accessibility of facilities (like grocery stores, hospitals or
schools) for different neighborhoods,focusing on the relative accessibility rather
than absolute distances.

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