Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2015/ii/paper-4/2i/solution

For nonempty compact sets, define the distance from a point to a closed set by and the Hausdorff distance by
The minima and suprema exist: the sets are nonempty and compact, and the distance function is Lipschitz continuous. The Hausdorff distance is finite, nonnegative and symmetric. If it is zero, every point of belongs to the closed set and conversely, so ; the converse is immediate.
For , choose attaining and then attaining . The triangle inequality gives . Taking the supremum over , and doing the same with exchanged, proves . Hence this is a metric.
The nested compact sets have the finite intersection property inside , so is nonempty. It is a closed subset of and therefore compact. Because , only contributes to the Hausdorff distance. If this did not tend to zero, some increasing indices and would satisfy . A convergent subsequence in has limit . For each fixed , its tail belongs to the closed set , so . But then , a contradiction. Thus .

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