Past exam of the options II course of the University of Oxford / 2013 / D4 / d / ii

Let $N$ be the vector subspace of integrable functions that vanish almost everywhere. The Lebesgue space is the quotient vector space $L^1(\mathbb{R})={\mathcal{L}}^1(\mathbb{R})/N$: its elements are equivalence classes of functions equal almost everywhere. Addition and scalar multiplication are $[f]+[g]=[f+g]$ and $c[f]=[cf]$.

Set $\Vert [f]{\Vert }_1=\int |f|$. This is well-defined because replacing $f$ by an equal-almost-everywhere representative does not change the integral. It is nonnegative, homogeneous, and obeys the triangle inequality by $|f+g|\le |f|+|g|$. Part (i) says its only zero element is the zero class. Hence it is a norm on $L^1$.