Real Analysis – Graph of a Continuous Function Has Measure Zero

real-analysis

I need help to solve the following problem:

Let $f: \mathbb{R}^n \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ be a continuous function. Prove that the graph $G(f)=\{(x,f(x)):x\in\mathbb{R}^n\}$ has measure zero in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$.

I suppose that I have to use that f es uniformly continuous, but I don't know what rectangle which sum of volumes is less than $\varepsilon > 0$ should I take.

Best Answer

It is sufficient to show that the set $G'=\{(x,f(x)) | x \in [0,1)^n \}$ has measure zero.

Let $\epsilon>0$, then since $f$ is uniformly continuous on the compact set $[0,1]^n$, there is some $\delta>0$ such that if $\forall x,x' \in [0,1): \|x-x'\|_\infty < \delta$ (note convenient choice of norm) then $|f(x)-f(x')| < \epsilon$.

Now choose $n$ such that ${ 1\over n} < \delta$ and, with $k = (k_1,...,k_n)$, let $x_k = {k \over n}$ and $R_k = \{x_k\} + [0,{1 \over n})^n$, where each of the $k_i$ range through $0,...,n-1$. Note that $\sum_k m R_k = m [0,1)^n = 1$.

Note that for $x \in R_k$, we have $|f(x)-f(x_k)| < \epsilon$, hence $\{ (x,f(x)) \}_{x \in R_k} \subset R_k \times [f(x_k)-\epsilon, f(x_k) + \epsilon]$ and so $m \{ (x,f(x)) \}_{x \in R_k} \le m R_k \cdot m [f(x_k)-\epsilon, f(x_k) + \epsilon] = 2 \epsilon \, m R_k$.

Hence $m G' \le 2 \epsilon \sum_k \, m R_k = 2 \epsilon$.

Since $\epsilon>0$ was arbitrary, we have $m G' = 0$.