Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 ib Paper 1 10F b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
For a point and a nonempty set, write . The given Hausdorff distance is equivalentlyIt is nonnegative and symmetric. If , then every has , so because is closed; hence , and symmetry gives .
For the triangle inequality, the ordinary triangle inequality givesTaking suprema over , and then repeating with and interchanged, yieldsThus is a metric on . Closedness is essential: if it is omitted, then the distinct bounded sets and have Hausdorff distance zero.
For singleton sets,so is an isometry. Its image is closed. Indeed, if converges in Hausdorff distance to , then for every and all sufficiently large ,Hence any satisfy . Letting gives , so the nonempty set is a singleton. This is the closed singleton embedding in a Hausdorff hyperspace.
If is complete, its closed subspace is complete. Since is an isometry, is complete. Hence completeness is reflected by the Hausdorff hyperspace.