Example
Consider the unit circle S, and the action on S by a group G consisting of all rational rotations. Namely, these are rotations by angles which are rational multiples of π. Here G is countable (more specifically, G is isomorphic to ) while S is uncountable. Hence S breaks up into uncountably many orbits under G. Using the axiom of choice, we could pick a single point from each orbit, obtaining an uncountable subset with the property that all of its translates by G are disjoint from X and from each other. The set of those translates partitions the circle into a countable collection of disjoint sets, which are all pairwise congruent (by rational rotations). The set X will be non-measurable for any rotation-invariant countably additive probability measure on S: if X has zero measure, countable additivity would imply that the whole circle has zero measure. If X has positive measure, countable additivity would show that the circle has infinite measure.
Read more about this topic: Non-measurable Set
Famous quotes containing the word example:
“Our intellect is not the most subtle, the most powerful, the most appropriate, instrument for revealing the truth. It is life that, little by little, example by example, permits us to see that what is most important to our heart, or to our mind, is learned not by reasoning but through other agencies. Then it is that the intellect, observing their superiority, abdicates its control to them upon reasoned grounds and agrees to become their collaborator and lackey.”
—Marcel Proust (18711922)