Skip to content

7. “finite” sequences are dense

problem

Show that the set of all sequence x∈𝒞x∈𝒞 with finitely many 11s is countable and dense.

Let 𝒮𝒮 denote the set of all strings with finitely many 11s. This set is countable because it is a countable union of countable sets (define 𝒮k𝒮_k the set of strings with no 11s after position kk; then 𝒮=⋃𝒮k𝒮=⋃𝒮_k).

It is dense: fix any x∈𝒞x∈𝒞 and ϵ>0ϵ>0. Take k∈Nk∈ℕ so that 1\/2(k+1)<ϵ1\/2^(k+1)<ϵ. Then define y∈𝒮y∈𝒮 as the string agreeing with xx on the first kk coordinates, and zeros everywhere else. Notice then that d(x,y)=∑(i=0)∞abs(x(i)−y(i))/2(i+1)=∑(i=k+1)∞abs(x(i)−y(i))/2(i+1)≤∑(i=k+1)∞1/2(i+1)=1/2(k+1)<ϵ. d(x, y) = ∑_(i=0)^∞ abs(x(i)-y(i)) / 2^(i+1) = ∑_(i=k+1)^∞ abs(x(i)-y(i)) / 2^(i+1) ≤ ∑_(i=k+1)^∞ 1 / 2^(i+1) = 1 / 2^(k+1) < ϵ.