9.250 Mark some intervals on a line segment of length 1 such that no two intervals have a common interior, and the distance between any two points, whether in the same interval or different intervals, is not equal to 0.1. Prove: The sum of the lengths of the marked intervals does not exceed 0.5.
Solution
[Proof] Without loss of generality, let the line segment of length 1 be . Let be the union of points on the marked intervals, and , i.e., is the union of points on some intervals in that have no common interior. Suppose is a natural number and , and let and denote the sum of the lengths of the intervals formed by and , respectively. Since any two points in are not 0.1 units apart, when , . When , . From , it follows that the sum of the lengths of the marked intervals .
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