Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-integration-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2017/1/a/i/solution

If , the required inequality is automatic. Otherwise each has finite Lebesgue outer measure. Fix . By the defining infimum, for each choose a countable interval cover with
The family indexed by is countable and covers . Since all lengths are nonnegative, its total length is at most . Taking the infimum over covers of the union and then letting gives
This proves countable subadditivity of Lebesgue outer measure directly from interval covers, without assuming that any is measurable.

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