How can we show that the dyadic rationals are dense in $\mathbb R$?

Question

Numbers of the form $ \dfrac{m}{2^{n}} $, where $ m $ is an integer and $ n $ is a non-negative integer, are called dyadic rational numbers.

How can one show that the dyadic rationals are dense in $ \mathbb{R} $?

Answer 1

So, basically, we have to show that the set of dyadic rationals are dense in $\mathbb{R}$. For this, if we show that the set $\left\lbrace \frac{m}{2^n}:m\in \mathbb{N}\cup\lbrace 0 \rbrace,n\in\mathbb{N}\text{ and }0\leq m \leq 2^n \right\rbrace$ is dense in $[0,1]$, then we are done. From this, one can easily extend $\textit{denseness}$ of the above numbers from $[0,1]$ into whole $\mathbb{R}$.

For the above purpose, let $\epsilon >0$, and let $x\in[0,1]$. From the Archimedean property, there is $n\in\mathbb{N}$ such that $\frac{1}{2^n}<\epsilon$. Let $m=\lfloor x\cdot2^n \rfloor$ where $\lfloor\cdot\rfloor$ represents Floor function. Then it is clear that $0\leq m \leq 2^n$. From the usual properties of Floor function, we have $$m=\lfloor x\cdot2^n \rfloor \leq x\cdot2^n \leq m+1=\lfloor x\cdot2^n \rfloor+1 $$, i.e., $$ \frac{m}{2^n}\leq x\leq \frac{m+1}{2^n} $$, i.e., $$ 0\leq x-\frac{m}{2^n}\leq \frac{1}{2^n} <\epsilon $$ which is exactly the statement we want to prove. Thus the set $\left\lbrace \frac{m}{2^n}:m\in \mathbb{N}\cup\lbrace 0 \rbrace,n\in\mathbb{N}\text{ and }0\leq m \leq 2^n \right\rbrace$ is dense in $[0,1]$. Now just extend this to whole $\mathbb{R}$.

Answer 2

Hint: if I walk from left to right on the real line taking steps of fixed length $\delta > 0$ and start to the left of some interval $I = (a,b)$, then if $\delta < b-a$, I must set foot in the interval $I$.

Answer 3

Hint: show that for any non-empty open interval $\,(a,b)\,$ there exist $\,m,n\in\Bbb Z\,$ s.t. $\,\displaystyle{\frac{m}{2^n}\in(a,b)}\,$ (why is this enough?)

Answer 4

HINT: Let $x,y\in\Bbb R$ with $x<y$. There is an $n\in\Bbb N$ such that $2^{-n}<y-x$. Show that $(x,y)$ must contain an integer multiple of $2^{-n}$ and therefore some dyadic rational with denominator $2^m$ for some $m\le n$.

Answer 5

Show that the smallest closed set containing the set of all such dyadic numbers is $\mathbb{R}$. Specifically: any arbitrary open neighborhood $U$ of a real number $q$ not dyadic must intersect nontrivially with the set of all dyadic numbers. So $q$ is a limit point. Can you show why the intersection contains something other than $q$?

Answer 6

We have that if $A \subset B \subset C$ and $A$ is dense in $B$ and $B$ is dense in $C$, then $A$ is dense in $C$.

We also have that rationals ($B$) are dense in $\mathbb{R}$ ($C$), so we only have to show that the dyadic rationals ($A$) are dense in the rationals.

Given a rational number $\frac{p}{q}$ consider the sequence $\left\{ \frac{\left\lfloor 2^n \frac{p}{q} \right\rfloor}{2^n} \right\}$ which converges to $\frac{p}{q}$.

Answer 7

You can also show it this way if you know the following theorem:

$\textbf{Theorem}$:

Let $(\mathbb{R},\mathcal{T}_{\mathbb{R}})$ be the standard real space. Let $(G,+|_{G\times G})\leq(\mathbb{R},+)$ be a subgroup where $+$ is the standard addition on the real number. Then exactly one of the following holds:

$G=\{0\}$ or $G=inf(G\cap]0,+\infty[)\cdot\mathbb{Z}$ or $\overline{G}^{\mathcal{T}_{\mathbb{R}}}=\mathbb{R}$ (i.e. G is dense)

we can summarize this result by saying that additive subgroup of the real numbers are either cyclic or dense (but not both obviously).

Knowing this result, call the dyadic rational set $\mathcal{D}:=\{\frac{m}{2^{n}} : m\in\mathbb{Z}, n\in\mathbb{N}\}$ then:

$(\mathcal{D},+|_{\mathcal{D}\times\mathcal{D}})\leq(\mathbb{R},+)$ (straightforward verification) thus the theorem applies. But:

• $\mathcal{D}\neq\{0\}$

• $\mathcal{D}$ is not cyclic: if it was then it would be of the form $\mathcal{D}=\alpha\cdot\mathbb{Z}$ with $0\overset{\mathcal{D}\neq\{0\}}{<}|\alpha|=\frac{|r|}{2^k}\in\mathcal{D}$ for some $k\in\mathbb{N}$ and $r\in\mathbb{Z}$ then $\alpha=min(\mathcal{D}\cap]0;+\infty[)$ but clearly $\frac{|r|}{2^{k+1}}\in\mathcal{D}\cap]0;+\infty[$ and $\frac{|r|}{2^{k+1}}<\frac{|r|}{2^{k}}=\alpha$ which contradicts the minimality of $\alpha$.

So the only left option is that $\overline{\mathcal{D}}^{\mathcal{T}_{\mathbb{R}}}=\mathbb{R}$.