Homepage › Solution manuals › Terence Tao › Analysis I › Exercise 4.3.1 (Basic properties of absolute value and distance)

Exercise 4.3.1 (Basic properties of absolute value and distance)

Prove Proposition 4.3.3.

Proposition 4.3.3 Let x,y,z be rational numbers.

(a) (Non-degeneracy of absolute value) We have |x|≥ 0. Also, |x| = 0 if and only if x is 0.
(b) (Triangle inequality for absolute value) We have |x + y|≤|x| + |y|.
(c) We have the inequalities − y ≤ x ≤ y if and only if y ≥|x|. In particular, we have −|x|≤ x ≤|x|.
(d) (Multiplicativity of absolute value) We have |xy| = |x||y|. In particular, |−x| = |x|.
(e) (Non-degeneracy of distance) We have d(x,y) ≥ 0. Also, d(x,y) = 0 if and only if x = y.
(f) (Symmetry of distance) d(x,y) = d(y,x).
(g) (Triangle inequality for distance) d(x,z) ≤ d(x,y) + d(y,z).