Skip to main content Skip to search Skip to search

Mathematics General

Metric Spaces

by (author) Satish Shirali & Harkrishan Lal Vasudeva

Publisher
Springer/Sci-Tech/Trade
Initial publish date
Aug 2005
Category
General
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781852339227
    Publish Date
    Aug 2005
    List Price
    $87.95

Classroom Resources

Where to buy it

Description

Since the last century, the postulational method and an abstract point of view have played a vital role in the development of modern mathematics. The experience gained from the earlier concrete studies of analysis point to the importance of passage to the limit. The basis of this operation is the notion of distance between any two points of the line or the complex plane. The algebraic properties of underlying sets often play no role in the development of analysis; this situation naturally leads to the study of metric spaces. The abstraction not only simplifies and elucidates mathematical ideas that recur in different guises, but also helps eco- mize the intellectual effort involved in learning them. However, such an abstract approach is likely to overlook the special features of particular mathematical developments, especially those not taken into account while forming the larger picture. Hence, the study of particular mathematical developments is hard to overemphasize. The language inwhich a large body of ideas and results of functional analysis are expressed is that of metric spaces. The books on functional analysis seem to go over the preliminaries of this topic far too quickly. The present authors attempt to provide a leisurely approach to the theory of metric spaces. In order to ensure that the ideas take root gradually but firmly, a large number of examples and counterexamples follow each definition. Also included are several worked examples and exercises. Applications of the theory are spread out over the entire book.

About the authors