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ExampleConstruction: AI-adaptedVerification: AI-generatedprecheck passjudge pass (z-ai/glm-5.2)audited 2026-07-27
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  • Literature-sourced: the exact statement appears in a cited source; only wording and notation differ.
  • AI-adapted: a semantically identical restatement of literature-sourced material, modulo indexing, notation, and boundary cases adopted by the library.
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These labels describe origin, not correctness: citations and verification chips remain separate evidence.

With the discrete metric d(x,y)=1 for x≠y, a space is compact iff it is totally bounded iff it is finite, and it is complete whatever its size

Example

Let S be a set and define d:S×S→R by d(x,y)=0 when x=y and d(x,y)=1 when x≠y: the discrete metric on S. Then:

  1. d is a metric (Metric space: d(x,y)=0 iff x=y, symmetry, and the triangle inequality; pseudometric and ultrametric), B(x,r)={x} for 0<r≤1 and B(x,r)=S for r>1 (Open ball, closed ball and sphere in a metric space), and every subset of S is both open and closed (The metric topology: a set is open when every one of its points has a ball around it inside the set; closed means open complement).
  2. (S,d) is complete (Complete metric space: every Cauchy sequence converges in the space), whatever S is: a Cauchy sequence in it is eventually constant.
  3. The following are equivalent: (S,d) is compact (Open cover, subcover, compact metric space, and compact subset of a metric space); (S,d) is totally bounded (Finite ε-net and totally bounded metric space); S is finite (Finite, countably infinite, countable, uncountable).

So the discrete metric separates the two halves of "complete and totally bounded": it is always complete, and it is totally bounded only in the trivial case.

Facts & Assumptions

Given: A set S and the discrete metric d on it, with d(x,y)=0 for x=y and d(x,y)=1 otherwise.

[L1]

A metric satisfies (M1) d(x,y)=0 exactly when x=y, (M2) symmetry, (M3) the triangle inequality (Metric space: d(x,y)=0 iff x=y, symmetry, and the triangle inequality; pseudometric and ultrametric).

[L2]

B(x,r)={y:d(x,y)<r}; a set is open when every point of it has a ball around it inside it, and closed when its complement is open (Open ball, closed ball and sphere in a metric space, The metric topology: a set is open when every one of its points has a ball around it inside the set; closed means open complement).

[L3]

(xk) is Cauchy when for every rational ε>0 there is K with d(xm,xn)<ε for m,n≥K; it converges to p when for every rational ε>0 there is K with d(xk,p)<ε for k≥K; the space is complete when every Cauchy sequence converges in it (Cauchy sequence in a metric space, Convergence of a sequence in a metric space: xk→x iff d(xk,x)→0 in R, Complete metric space: every Cauchy sequence converges in the space).

[L4]

(S,d) is compact when every family of open subsets with union S has a finite subfamily with union S; a finite set is empty or listable as {s0,…,sp} (Open cover, subcover, compact metric space, and compact subset of a metric space, Finite, countably infinite, countable, uncountable).

[L5]

A finite ε-net is a finite F⊆S with S=⋃y∈FB(y,ε), and total boundedness asks for one at every real ε>0 (Finite ε-net and totally bounded metric space).

[L7]

A function with domain a natural number all of whose values are nonempty sets has a choice function, in ZF (Every natural-number-indexed list of nonempty sets has a choice function on its family of values).

Verification

technique · direct
1.1

d is a metric: (M1) holds by definition; (M2) because the condition x≠y is symmetric; and (M3) because d(x,z) is 0 or 1, and when it is 1 one has x≠z, so y differs from at least one of x and z and d(x,y)+d(y,z)≥1.

L1
2.1

For 0<r≤1, d(x,y)<r≤1 forces d(x,y)=0 and y=x, so B(x,r)={x}; for r>1 every y has d(x,y)≤1<r, so B(x,r)=S. Hence every A⊆S is open, each x∈A having B(x,1)={x}⊆A, and every subset is closed as well, its complement being open: claim 1.

L2step 1.1
2.2

Claim 2: let (xk) be Cauchy and take K with d(xm,xn)<1 for m,n≥K; then d(xm,xK)=0, that is xm=xK, for every m≥K, so d(xk,xK)=0<ε for k≥K and every rational ε>0, and xk→xK∈S.

L1L3step 1.1
3.1

For claim 3, suppose S is finite. If S=∅ then the empty subfamily of any family covers it; otherwise list S={s0,…,sp}, let U be a family of open sets with union S, and note that for each i≤p the set {U∈U:si∈U} is nonempty, so finite choice supplies U0,…,Up∈U with si∈Ui; their union contains every si and hence is S. So (S,d) is compact.

L4L7step 2.2
4.1

If (S,d) is compact it is totally bounded.

L6step 3.1
5.1

If (S,d) is totally bounded, take a finite (1/2)-net F; then S=⋃y∈FB(y,1/2)=⋃y∈F{y}=F by step 2.1, so S is finite.

L5step 2.1step 4.1
6.1

Steps 3.1, 4.1 and 5.1 close the cycle finite ⇒ compact ⇒ totally bounded ⇒ finite, so the three conditions of claim 3 are equivalent.

step 3.1step 4.1step 5.1∎

Remarks

This is the standard witness for two of the false statements of the A page. Taking S=N gives a bounded space that is not totally bounded (FALSE: a bounded metric space is totally bounded, N with the discrete metric is bounded and is not totally bounded) and a closed bounded subset of a metric space that is not compact (FALSE: a closed and bounded subset of a metric space is compact).

Completeness is not what compactness adds. Claim 2 holds for every S, including infinite ones, so completeness alone is very far from compactness. What the discrete metric lacks is total boundedness, and by For a metric space, compact, countably compact, limit point compact, sequentially compact, and complete together with totally bounded are all equivalent, given countable choice and dependent choice it is exactly the pair of conditions that is equivalent to compactness.

Boundedness of the space is unconditional too. Every discrete space is contained in B(x,2) for any of its points, so, for infinite S, it is bounded, complete, and not compact all at once (Bounded subset, diameter, distance from a point to a set, and distance between two sets in a metric space).

Depends on

Used by

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Sources