Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2006 / ii / Paper 4 / 2G / a / Solution

The closed-set form of the Baire category theorem says: if a nonempty complete metric space is a countable union of closed sets, at least one of those sets has nonempty interior. Equivalently, a complete metric space cannot be a countable union of closed sets with empty interiors. In the application the space is $\mathbb{R}$ with its usual complete metric.