[Math] Showing that metric induces single unique topology on a finite set

general-topology

I am trying to prove, that given a metric on a finite set it induces exactly one topology. I have an idea which might lead to a proof, but am not sure:

For a finite set X with a given metric d we can prove it is a discrete topology:

$\forall x \in X$ take $r$ s.t. $ r := \min_{y \in X}(d(x, y))$. We can do this as $X$ is finite. This way we can construct open balls for each $x$ such that they contain only x. So each x is in a open subset which is a singleton. And therefore we have a discrete topology.

I am not sure how to proceed showing that it is only this topology that we can get from the metric space.

Thank you.

Best Answer

Your proof is fine, except that you want your minimum to run only over $y\in X\setminus\{x\}$.

[Note that this proof (of course) fails for infinite $X$ as the minimum of infinitely many positive numbers need not exist (or, if we switch to the infimum, it need no longer be positive).]

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