[Home]Lebesgue measure

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The Lebesgue measure is the standard way of assigning a volume to subsets of Euclidean space. It is used throughout real analysis, in particular to define Lebesgue integration. Sets which can be assigned a volume are called Lebesgue measurable; the volume or measure of the Lebesgue measurable set A is denoted by λ(A). A Lebesgue measure of ∞ is possible, but even so, not all subsets of Rn are Lebesgue measurable. The "strange" behavior of non-measurable sets gives rise to such statements as the Banach-Tarski paradox.

The Lebesgue measure has the following properties:

  1. If A is a product of intervals of the form I1 x I2 x ... x In, then A is Lebesgue measurable and λ(A) = |I1| · ... · |In|. Here, |I| denotes the length of the interval I as explained in the article on intervals.
  2. If A is a disjoint union of finitely many or countably many disjoint Lebesgue measurable sets, then A is itself Lebesgue measurable and λ(A) is equal to the sum (or infinite series) of the measures of the involved measurable sets.
  3. If A is Lebesgue measurable, then so is its complement.
  4. λ(A) ≥ 0 for every Lebesgue measurable set A.
  5. If A and B are Lebesgue measurable and A is a subset of B, then λ(A) ≤ λ(B). (A consequence of 2, 3 and 4.)
  6. Countable unions and intersections of Lebesgue measurbable sets are Lebesgue measurable. (A consequence of 2 and 3.)
  7. If A is an open or closed subset of Rn (see metric space), then A is Lebesgue measureable.
  8. If A is Lebesgue measurable set with λ(A) = 0 (a null set), then every subset of A is also a null set.
  9. If A is Lebesgue measurable and x is an element of Rn, then the translation of A by x, defined by A + x = {a + x : a in A}, is also Lebesgue measurable and has the same measure as A.

Construction of the Lebesgue measure

still missing

Mention connection to Borel measure, [Haar measure]?

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Edited December 12, 2001 11:00 am by AxelBoldt (diff)
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