We describe here a non-measurable subset of the segment I=[0,1]⊂R.
Let’s define on I an equivalence relation by x∼y if and only if x−y∈Q. The equivalence relation ∼ induces equivalence classes on I. For x∈I, it’s equivalence class [x] is [x]={y∈I : y−x∈Q}. By the Axiom of Choice, we can form a set A by selecting a single point from each equivalence class.
We claim that the set A is not Lebesgue measurable.
For all q∈Q we denote Aq={q+x :x∈A}. Let’s take p,q∈Q. If it exists z∈Ap∩Aq, it means that there exist u,v∈A such that
z=p+u=q+v hence u−v=q−p=0 as u,v are supposed to be unique representatives of the classes of the equivalence relation ∼. Finally if p,q are distincts, Ap∩Aq=∅.
As Lebesgue measure μ is translation invariant, we have for q∈Q∩[0,1] : μ(A)=μ(Aq) and also Aq⊂[0,2]. Hence if we denote
B=⋃q∈Q∩[0,1]Aq we have B⊂[0,2]. If we suppose that A is measurable, we get
μ(B)=∑q∈Q∩[0,1]μ(Aq)=∑q∈Q∩[0,1]μ(A)≤2 by countable additivity of Lebesgue measure (the set Q∩[0,1] being countable infinite). This implies μ(A)=0.
Let’s prove now that
[0,1]⊂⋃q∈Q∩[−1,1]Aq For z∈[0,1], there exists u∈A such that z∈[u]. As A⊂[0,1], we have q=z−u∈Q and −1≤q≤1. And z=q+u means that z∈Aq. This proves the inclusion. However the inclusion implies the contradiction
1=μ([0,1])≤∑q∈Q∩[−1,1]μ(Aq)=∑q∈Q∩[−1,1]μ(A)=0
Finally A is not Lebesgue measurable.