TITLE: Number of equivalence classes of functions of real variable with the a.e relation.
QUESTION [6 upvotes]: What is the cardinal of the set $\mathcal{F}(\mathbb{R};X)/ \sim$ where $\sim$ is the relation $f\sim g \iff \mu(\{x\in \mathbb{R};f(x)\ne g(x)\})=0$ and $|X|=|\mathbb{R}|$?
I guess that is $\mathfrak{c}$ but I can't prove it.

REPLY [2 votes]: The answer is $2^c$....[1].. Let $D$ be the set of uncountable closed subsets of $R$. We have $|R|=c$ and $|d|=c$ for $d\in D$. We can show there exists a family $E$ of pairwise disjoint subsets of $R$ with $|E|=c$, such that $e \cap d \ne \phi$ for all $e \in E ,d \in D$. So if $\phi \ne S \subsetneqq E$ then $\cup S$ is not measurable...[2].. For $ \phi \ne S \subsetneqq E$  , let $f_S :R \to \{0,1 \}$ be the characteristic function of  $\cup S$. Now for distinct  $S,T$ with $\phi \ne S \subsetneqq E$ and $\phi \ne T \subsetneqq E$, we have  $\phi \ne A \subsetneqq E$ where $A= (S-T)\cup (T-S)$, and $\{ x : f_S \ne f_T \} =  \cup A$ which is non-measurable, so $\chi _S$ and $\chi _T$ are inequivalent...[3]..  I will supply the details about the existence of  $E$ if asked. It only depends on |$C|=c$,  and $d \in C \implies |d|=c$. I am very very slow at typing in LaTeX and not very good with it yet. The reason that $\cup S$ is not measurable when $\phi \ne S \subsetneqq E$ is that the inner measure of $\cup S$ and the inner measure of $R- \cup S$ are both $0$ because neither of them has an uncountable closed subset.