# Metric problems

I am taking the GRE in less than 10 days, and I have never taken analysis. And I would like to tackle metric problems and I was wondering if anyone could show me a certain strategy to solve problems as the following.

For every set $S$ and every metric $d$ on $S$, which of the following is a metric on $S$ ?

(A)$4 + d$

(B)$e^d-1$

(C)$d-|d|$

(D)$d^2$

(E)$\sqrt d$

I studied on my own and this is what I know about metrics.

If $\delta$ is a metric on $S$ and $x,y,z \in S$

a), $\delta (x,y) \ge 0 ,\forall x,y \in S$

b), $\delta (x,y) + \delta (y,z) \ge \delta (x,z) , \forall x,y,z \in S$

c), $\delta (x,x) = 0 ,\forall x \in S$

I think that (A) is not an answer because $4+d (x,x) = 4 \neq 0$.

For the rest, I have no idea how to proceed...

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is this GRE question? – dato datuashvili Apr 12 '13 at 8:25
What is $d$ above? – user70532 Apr 12 '13 at 8:30
Yes, this is a GRE question. d is undefined. – hyg17 Apr 12 '13 at 19:46

Note the metric $\delta$ must satisfies: $\delta(x,y)=\delta(y,x).$
C is. As $0 \le d$, then $d-|d|=d-d=0$. It satisfies a),b),c).