Guys, my book says that $(X,Y)\subset\mathbb R[X,Y]$ is not an ideal generated by a single element. Because if $g\in\mathbb R[X,Y]$ would be a generator of the ideal, then $X$ and $Y$ would be multiples of $g$. Therefore g\neq 0$ and the degree of $X$ and $G$ would be $\leq 0$.
I don’t understand why $X$ and $Y$ would be multiples of $g$. I know that $(g)=\{ rg\mid r\in\mathbb R[X,Y]\}$. This $r\in\mathbb R[X,Y]$ could be any polynomial, so why are we only considering multiples? And apart from that, I don’t understand why the degree would be $\leq 0$?