Prove that if the outer measure of a set $E$ is the supremum of the measure of closed bdd sets, then $E$ is measurable.

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Prove that if the outer measure of a set $E$ is the supremum of closed bdd sets, then $E$ is measurable. More formally, let $E \subset \mathbb{R}^d$ and let the outer measure $m_*(E) < +\infty$. Suppose

\begin{align} m_*(E) = \{m(F): F\subset E \,\, \text{is closed and bounded}\} \end{align}

Prove $E$ is measurable (Lebesgue).


Proof. First note that by properties of the supremum, that for any $\epsilon >0$, we can select $F\subset E$ such that

\begin{align} m_*(E) - m_*(F) < \epsilon \end{align}

Since $F\subset E$, we also have $E = (E-F) \cup F$. And, since $(E-F)$ is disjoint from $F$

\begin{align} m_*(E) =& m_*(E-F) + m_*(F) \\ \\ &\implies m_*(E-F) \leq m_*(E) - m_*(F) < \epsilon \end{align}

Which implies the outer measure of $(E-F)$ is zero, which implies $(E-F)$ is measurable. Therefore $E$ is the union of measurable sets, which makes it measurable.