lacunary - Mathnotes

Measurable Spaces and Functions

Theorem: nonexistence of extension of length to all subsets of R \@{nonexistence-of-extension-of-length-to-all-subsets-of-reals}

There does not exist a function μ with all of the following properties:

  1. (a) μ is a function from the set of subsets of R to [0,∞].
  2. (b) μ(I)=ℓ(I) for every @open interval I of R.
  3. (c) μ(⋃k=1∞Ak)=∑k=1∞μ(Ak) for every @disjoint sequence A1,A2,… of subsets of R.
  4. (d) μ(t+A)=μ(A) for every A⊂R and every t∈R.
Proof \@{proof-of-nonexistence-of-extension-of-length-to-all-subsets-of-reals}

Outline: assume such a μ exists. Then we can show that it has all of the properties of outer measure that were used to prove Nonadditivity of outer measure.

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