A Solution of a Problem of I. P. Natanson Concerning the Decomposition of an Interval into Disjoint Perfect Sets

In a previous paper published in this journal, it was demonstrated that any bounded, closed interval of the real line can, except for a set of Lebesgue measure 0, be expressed as a union of c pairwise disjoint perfect sets, where c is the cardinality of the continuum. It turns out that the methodology presented there cannot be used to show that such an interval is actually decomposable into c nonoverlapping perfect sets without the exception of a set of Lebesgue measure 0. We shall show, utilizing a Hilbert-type space-filling curve, that such a decomposition is possible. Furthermore, we prove that, in fact, any interval, bounded or not, can be so expressed.