For each z in C the unit normals a with a·z ≤ a·x form a closed subset of the sphere; finitely many of them meet because x is not interior to the compact convex hull of the finitely many points, and compactness of the sphere does the rest.
Throughout, closedness and compactness in refer to the metric topology , which exists by The Open Sets of a Metric Space Form a Set, Given by a Predicative Formula (ii), and for and a point lies in exactly when , by Hyperplanes and Half-Spaces in (i), and in exactly when , by Hyperplanes and Half-Spaces in (ii).
If , every point of satisfies (i), the inequality holding vacuously; for instance , whose first coordinate is and whose other coordinates are , so that . Assume from now on that .
For let
which is closed by Sets Cut Out by Linear Inequalities in Are Closed (i); by symmetry and bilinearity, exactly when . So (i) asks for a point of lying in every , and by compactness of it suffices to treat finitely many at a time.
Let be nonempty and finite (listed as by a bijection , Finite Sets (i)), and let . The set is compact by The Convex Hull of a Compact Subset of is Compact (ii), hence closed by Closed Subsets of Compact Sets Are Compact, and Compact Subsets of a Metric Space Are Closed and Bounded (ii); it is convex with by Convex Hull of a Subset of (i), since is a convex superset of . Since , also (Interior of a Subset of a Metric Space (ii)), hence . By A Point Outside the Interior of a Closed Convex Subset of Has a Supporting Unit Normal (i), applied to and , there is with for every , in particular for every . Hence
Now The Finite Intersection Property of a Compact Set (i), in , applied to the compact set , the nonempty index set and the family of closed sets, whose hypothesis is the last display, gives with , that is , for every . This proves (i).
For (ii) and (iii), let be as in (i); then because . Put , so that and . If , it follows that supports at by Supporting Hyperplane of a Subset of at a Point (i), which is (ii). Next, every closure point of is a closure point of the larger set (Closure of a Subset of a Metric Space (i)), and so lies in , this half-space being closed (Sets Cut Out by Linear Inequalities in Are Closed (iii), Closure and Interior in a Metric Space: Containments, the Closure is Closed, the Interior is Open (iv)). Hence (Closure of a Subset of a Metric Space (ii)), and if , then supports at , which is (iii).
Loading…