Let (X,d) be a metric space and let A⊆X be nonempty, and write distd(z,A) for the distance from a point z∈X to A in (X,d). Let R denote the real numbers, with the order, addition and additive inverses of their ordered field structure; write s−t for s+(−t), write s<t to mean that s≤t and s=t, let ∣s∣ be the absolute value of s, and let dR be given by dR(s,t)=∣s−t∣, which is a metric on R by The Absolute Value Metric on the Real Line.
Then the following hold for all x,y∈X and every a∈A.
1. 0≤distd(x,A).
2. distd(x,A)≤d(x,a).
3. distd(x,A)≤d(x,y)+distd(y,A).
4. ∣distd(x,A)−distd(y,A)∣≤d(x,y).
5. The map f:X→R defined by f(z)=distd(z,A) is uniformly continuous on X as a map from (X,d) to (R,dR), and is continuous on X.