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There was a problem of metric space which I recently found. It is as follows:

Suppose $X$ is a metric space with finitely many isolated points and having the property that every real value continuous function on $X$ is uniformly continuous.Then show that $X$ is compact.

I have no idea of how to proceed further.Can someone help me to work it out?

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  • $\begingroup$ @IAmNoOne I have tried but that does not help.I have even tried to show that $X$ is pseudocompact,but it does not work. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 2, 2020 at 2:36
  • $\begingroup$ @IAmNoOne I started by taking a real valued continuous function that is not bounded,I wanted to show that if $X$ has finitely many isolated points,then this function cannot be uniformly continuous,which is a contradiction.But I could not find the spot where contradiction would occur. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 2, 2020 at 3:45

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SKETCH: Let $\langle X,d\rangle$ be a metric space with only finitely many isolated points, and suppose that $X$ is not compact.

  • Show that $X$ has a countably infinite closed, discrete subset subset $D=\{x_n:n\in\Bbb Z^+\}$.

For each $n\in\Bbb Z^+$ let $D_n=\{x_k\in D:k>n\}$.

  • Recursively construct pairwise disjoint open balls around the points of $D$ as follows. First, there is an $r_1>0$ such that $\operatorname{cl}B(x_1,r_1)\cap D_1=\varnothing$ and $r_1\le 1$. Then there is an $r_2>0$ such that $\operatorname{cl}B(x_2,r_2)\cap\big(\operatorname{cl}B(x_1,r_1)\cup D_2\big)=\varnothing$ and $r_1\le\frac12$. In general, at stage $k$ we choose $r_k>0$ such that

$$\operatorname{cl}B(x_k,r_k)\cap\left(D_k\cup\bigcup_{\ell<k}\operatorname{cl}B(x_\ell,r_\ell)\right)=\varnothing\text{ and }r_k\le\frac1k\;.$$

Now let $U=\bigcup_{k\in\Bbb Z^+}B(x_k,r_k)$; $U$ is an open nbhd of $D$, so $D$ and $X\setminus U$ are disjoint closed sets. Define a function

$$f:D\cup(X\setminus U)\to\Bbb R:x\mapsto\begin{cases} n,&\text{if }x=x_n\\ 0,&\text{if }x\in X\setminus U\;. \end{cases}$$

  • Show that $f$ is continuous.

By the Tietze extension theorem there is a continuous $F:X\to\Bbb R$ that extends $f$, i.e., such that $F\upharpoonright\big(D\cup(X\setminus U)\big)=f$.

  • Show that $F$ is not uniformly continuous.
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  • $\begingroup$ how did you get this idea? $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 2, 2020 at 4:02
  • $\begingroup$ Is there any simpler way? $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 2, 2020 at 4:05
  • $\begingroup$ It does not look intuitive to me. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 2, 2020 at 4:05
  • $\begingroup$ Have u seen this problem before? $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 2, 2020 at 13:44
  • $\begingroup$ @KishalaySarkar: I don’t think that I’ve seen this particular problem before, but I’ve seen others that could be solved with a similar technique, i.e., using a countably infinite closed discrete set to construct a function with some specific property that could then be extended to the whole space. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 2, 2020 at 13:46

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