I am working on the following question with the question specific definition that: a set $A\subset\mathbb{R}$ is nowhere dense iff for any two points $c<d,\exists a<b\ s.t.\ [a,b]\subset[c,d]$ and $[a,b]\cap S=\varnothing.$
If A is countable, show that A is a union of countably many nowhere dense sets(Hint: Singleton).
I know that countable union of countable sets are countable but I havent a clue how to go about proving a singleton is nowhere dense using the supplied definition alone. I get that interior of a closure must be empty also, but not given that, and not sure how to derive that from given definition.
My current argument going with that A is a singleton by being countable, $$ [a,b]\cap A=\varnothing\Rightarrow([a,b]\cap A)^\circ=(\varnothing)^\circ\Rightarrow[a,b]^\circ\cap A^\circ=\varnothing\Rightarrow(a,b)\cap \varnothing=\varnothing. $$
Is this enough?
Let $A = \{a_n\}_{n = 1}^\infty$. Then we may also write $A = \bigcup_{n = 1}^\infty \{a_n\}$. Is this union countable? It suffices to show that if $x \in \mathbb{R}$, then the singleton $\{x\}$ is nowhere dense.
Why is this true? A set $A$ is nowhere dense if in every interval $(a, b)$ in $\mathbb{R}$, we can find some subinterval $(c, d)$ such that NO points of $A$ are in $(c, d)$. Contrast this with the definition of density; a set $A$ is dense if given any interval, there is always a point of $A$ within this interval.
How to prove that a one-point set is nowhere dense? Let $(a, b)$ be an interval in $\mathbb{R}$. If $x \leq a$ or $x \geq b$, we are done (since then $x$ is not in $(a, b)$ at all). So suppose $a < x < b$. Then the interval $(a, x)$ is contained in $(a, b)$, but $x \not\in (a, x)$.