Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2025/iii/paper-202/1/b/solution

Refine a dyadic partition by inserting and . The triangle inequality shows that its variation over is at least . Passing to the defining limit gives
Consequently the càdlàg functions
are nondecreasing: for , the displayed inequality makes both increments nonnegative. Thus they are distribution functions in the Stieltjes sense and ; this is the Jordan decomposition of a function of bounded variation.
Now , so is countable by part (a). For any finite subset , partitions isolating its points and the triangle inequality give
Taking the supremum over finite proves .

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