[Math] Show that a function almost everywhere continuous is measurable

lebesgue-measuremeasure-theory

I want to prove that a function $f:\mathbb{R}^n\rightarrow \overline{\mathbb{R}}$ that is continuous everywhere except for a set $E$ of Lebesgue measure zero is a Lebesgue measurable function.
We know that $f$ is not continuous, so there are some open sets ${U_k}$ in $\overline{\mathbb{R}}$ such that $f^{-1}(U_k)$ is not open in $\mathbb{R}^n$.
But $f^{-1}(U_k)\subseteq E$, and so $f^{-1}(U_k)$ is still measurable because it has measure zero.
I don't know if this works, because I'm not sure if $E$ contains actually the preimage of those open sets $U_k$.

Best Answer

You are using that subsets of measure-zero-sets are again measurable for the Lebesgue measure. This isn't trivial, a measure with this property is called complete and the Lebesgue measure indeed has that property.

Now from the viewpoint of logic, it may be good to start with the fact that $f$ is continuous - well, almost everywhere. So Let $E \subset \Bbb R^n$ be the set of points where $f$ is discontinuous.

Now from the definition, a function is Lebesgue-measurable if the preimage of any set in the Borel-algebra of $ \Bbb R$ is Lebesgue-measurable. As the Borel-algebra on $\Bbb R$ is generated by the open sets, it's enough to see that the preimage of any open set is measurable.

Now show that you can partition the preimage of any open set in an open set and a measurable subset of $E$. From the above argument, this shows that $f$ is Lebesgue-measurable.