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3 Countable and Uncountable Sets

The document defines countable and uncountable sets. A set is countable if it is finite or equinumerous to the natural numbers. The power set of the natural numbers and the set of real numbers are shown to be uncountable. A set is uncountable if there is no bijection between it and the natural numbers. Several properties of countable and uncountable sets are proven, including that the Cartesian product of countable sets is countable and subsets of countable sets are countable.

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Lim Yong Fong
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
148 views4 pages

3 Countable and Uncountable Sets

The document defines countable and uncountable sets. A set is countable if it is finite or equinumerous to the natural numbers. The power set of the natural numbers and the set of real numbers are shown to be uncountable. A set is uncountable if there is no bijection between it and the natural numbers. Several properties of countable and uncountable sets are proven, including that the Cartesian product of countable sets is countable and subsets of countable sets are countable.

Uploaded by

Lim Yong Fong
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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3

Countable and Uncountable Sets

A set A is said to be nite, if A is empty or there is n N and there is a bijection f : {1, . . . , n} A. Otherwise the set A is called innite. Two sets A and B are called equinumerous, written A B , if there is a bijection f : X Y . A set A is called countably innite if A N. We say that A is countable if A N or A is nite. Example 3.1. The sets (0, ) and R are equinumerous. Indeed, the function f : R (0, ) dened by f (x) = ex is a bijection. Example 3.2. The set Z of integers is countably innite. Dene f : N Z by n/2 if n is even; f (n) = (n 1)/2 if n is odd. Then f is a bijection from N to Z so that N Z. If there is no bijection between N and A, then A is called uncountable. Theorem 3.3. There is no surjection from a set A to P (A). Proof. Consider any function f : A P (A) and let B = {a A| a f (a)}. We claim that there is no b A such that f (b) = B . Indeed, assume f (b) = B for some b A. Then either b B hence b f (b) which is a contradiction, or b B = f (b) implying that b B which is again a contradiction. Hence the map f is not surjective as claimed. As a corollary we have the following result. Corollary 3.4. The set P (N) is uncountable. Proposition 3.5. Any subset of a countable set is countable. Proof. Without loss of generality we may assume that A is an innite subset of N. We dene h : N A as follows. Let h(1) = min A. Since A is innite, A is nonempty and so h() is well-dened. Having dened h(n 1), we dene h(n) = min(A \ {h(1), . . . , h(n 1)}). Again since A is innite the set (A \ {h(1), . . . , h(n 1)}) is nonempty, h(n) is well-dened. We claim that h is a bijection. We rst show that h is an injection. To see this we prove that h(n + k) > h(n) for all n, k N. By construction h(n + 1) > h(n) 11

for all n N. Then setting B = {k N| h(n + k) > h(n)} we see that 1 B and if h(n + (k 1)) > h(n), then h(n + k) > h(n + (k 1)) > h(n). Consequently, B = N. Since n was arbitrary, h(n + k) > h(n) for all n, k N. Now taking distinct n, m N we may assume that m > n so that m = n + k. By the above h(m) = h(n + k) > h(n) proving that h is an injection. Next we show that h is a surjection. To do this we rst show that h(n) n. Let C = {n N| h(n) n}. Clearly, 1 C . If k C , then h(k + 1) > h(k) n so that h(k + 1) k + 1. Hence k + 1 C and by the principle of mathematical induction C = N. Now take n0 A. We have to show that h(m0 ) = n0 for some m0 N. If n0 = 1, then m0 = 1. So assume that n0 2. Consider the set D = {n A| h(n) n0 }. Since h(n0 ) n0 , the set D is nonempty and by the well-ordering principle D has a minimum. Let m0 = min D . If m0 = 1, then h(m0 ) = min A n0 h(m0 ) and hence h(m0 ) = n0 . So we may also assume that n> min A. Then h(m0 ) n0 > h(m0 1) > . . . > h(1) in view of denitions of m0 and h. Since h(m0 ) = min(A \ {h(1), . . . , h(m0 1)}) and n0 A \ {h(1), . . . , h(m0 1)} and h(m0 ) n0 , it follows that h(m0 ) = n0 . This proves that h is also a surjection. Proposition 3.6. Let A be a non-empty set. Then the following are equivalent. (a) A is countable. (b) There exists a surjection f : N A. (c) There exists an injection g : A N. Proof. (a) = (b) If A is countably innite, then there exists a bijection f : N A and then (b) follows. If A is nite, then there is bijection h : {1, . . . , n} A for some n. Then the function f : N A dened by f (i) = h(i) h(n) 1 i n, i > n.

is a surjection. (b) = (c). Assume that f : N A is a surjection. We claim that there is an injection g; A N. To dene g note that if a A, then f 1 ({a}) = . Hence we set g(a) = min f 1 ((a)}). Now note that if a = a , then the sets f 1 ({a}) f 1 ({a }) = which implies min1 ({a}) = min1 ({a }). Hence g(a) = g(a )and g : A N is an injective. (c) (a). Assume that g : A N is an injection. We want to show that A 12

is countable. Since g : A g(A) is a bijection and g(A) N, Proposition 3.5 implies that A is countable. Corollary 3.7. The set N N is countable. Proof. By Proposition 3.6 it suces to construct an injective function f : N N N. Dene f : N N N by f (n, m) = 2n 3m . Assume that 2n 3m = 2k 3l . If n < k, then 3m = 2kn 3l . The left side of this equality is an odd number whereas the right is an even number implying n = k and 3m = 3l . Then also m = l. Hence f is injective. Proposition 3.8. If A and B are countable, then A B is countable. Proof. Since A and B are countable, there exist surjective functions f : N A and g : N B . Dene h : N N A B by F (n, m) = (f (n), g(m)). The function F is surjective. Since N N is countably innite, there is a bijection h : N N N. Then G : N A B dened by G = F h is a surjection. By part (c) of Proposition 3.6, the set A B A B is countable. Corollary 3.9. The set Q of all rational numbers is countable. Proposition 3.10. Assume that the set I is countable and Ai is countable for every i I . Then iI Ai is countable. Proof. For each i I , there exists a surjection fi : N Ai . Moreover, since I is countable, there exists a surjection g : N I . Now dene h : N N iI Ai by F (n, m) = fg (n) (m) and let h : N N N be a bijection. Then F is a surjection and the composition G = F h : N iI Ai is a surjection. By Proposition 3.6, ii Ai is countable. Proposition 3.11. The set of real numbers R is uncountable. The proof will be a consequence of the following result about nested intervals. Proposition 3.12. Assume that (In )nN is a countable collection of closed and bounded intervals In = an , bn ] satisfying In+1 In for all n N. Then nN In = . Proof. Since [an+1 , bn+1 ] [an , bn ] for all n, it follows that an bk for all n, k N. So, the set A = {an | n N} is bounded above by every bk and consequently a := sup A bk for all k N. But this implies that the set B = {bk | k N} is bounded below by a so that a b := inf B . Hence nN In = [a, b]. 13

Proof of Proposition 3.11. Arguing by contradiction assume that R is countable. Let x1 , x2 , x3 , . . . be enumeration of R. Choose a closed bounded interval I1 such that x1 I1 . Having chosen the closed intervals I1 , I2 , . . . , In1 , we choose the closed interval In to be a subset of In1 such that xn In . Consequently, we have a countable collection of closed bounded intervals (In ) such that In+1 In and xn In . Then by the above proposition, nN In = . Observe that if x belongs to this intersection, then x is not on the list x1 , x2 , . . ., contradiction.

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