131A Week 6

Discussion

Alan Zhou

Subsequences

Countability

131A Week 6 Discussion

subsequences and countability

Alan Zhou

May 5, 2020
 131A Week 6
Uses of subsequences Discussion

Alan Zhou

Subsequences

Countability
 131A Week 6
Uses of subsequences Discussion

Alan Zhou

Subsequences
I One way to show a bounded sequence diverges is to find
Countability
two subsequences which converge to different limits.
 131A Week 6
Uses of subsequences Discussion

Alan Zhou

Subsequences
I One way to show a bounded sequence diverges is to find
Countability
two subsequences which converge to different limits.
I On the other hand, if a sequence converges, every
subsequence converges to the same limit.
 131A Week 6
Uses of subsequences Discussion

Alan Zhou

Subsequences
I One way to show a bounded sequence diverges is to find
Countability
two subsequences which converge to different limits.
I On the other hand, if a sequence converges, every
subsequence converges to the same limit.
I If E is a closed and bounded subset of R (i.e. a
compact subset of R) and we want to show that there
is a point x ∈ E with some property P, one way to do
this is to define a sequence (xn ) in E whose points “get
closer and closer to having property P.”
 131A Week 6
Uses of subsequences Discussion

Alan Zhou

Subsequences
I One way to show a bounded sequence diverges is to find
Countability
two subsequences which converge to different limits.
I On the other hand, if a sequence converges, every
subsequence converges to the same limit.
I If E is a closed and bounded subset of R (i.e. a
compact subset of R) and we want to show that there
is a point x ∈ E with some property P, one way to do
this is to define a sequence (xn ) in E whose points “get
closer and closer to having property P.” We cannot
then say “the limit of this sequence has property P,”
one of the reasons being that the limit may not
exist.
 131A Week 6
Uses of subsequences Discussion

Alan Zhou

Subsequences
I One way to show a bounded sequence diverges is to find
Countability
two subsequences which converge to different limits.
I On the other hand, if a sequence converges, every
subsequence converges to the same limit.
I If E is a closed and bounded subset of R (i.e. a
compact subset of R) and we want to show that there
is a point x ∈ E with some property P, one way to do
this is to define a sequence (xn ) in E whose points “get
closer and closer to having property P.” We cannot
then say “the limit of this sequence has property P,”
one of the reasons being that the limit may not
exist. However, by the Bolzano-Weierstrass theorem,
(xn ) has a subsequence which converges, and the limit
of this subsequence (hopefully) has property P.
 131A Week 6
Subsequences of subsequences Discussion

Alan Zhou

Subsequences

Countability
 131A Week 6
Subsequences of subsequences Discussion

Alan Zhou

Theorem Subsequences

Let (xn ) be a sequence and ` ∈ R. If every subsequence has Countability

a further subsequence which converges to `, then xn → `.

 131A Week 6
Countable and uncountable sets Discussion

Alan Zhou

Subsequences

Countability
 131A Week 6
Countable and uncountable sets Discussion

Alan Zhou

Subsequences

Countability
I By countable, we mean “finite or countably infinite (in
bijection with N).”
I Some countably infinite sets:
 131A Week 6
Countable and uncountable sets Discussion

Alan Zhou

Subsequences

Countability
I By countable, we mean “finite or countably infinite (in
bijection with N).”
I Some countably infinite sets:
I N (by definition)
 131A Week 6
Countable and uncountable sets Discussion

Alan Zhou

Subsequences

Countability
I By countable, we mean “finite or countably infinite (in
bijection with N).”
I Some countably infinite sets:
I N (by definition)
I Z (proof later)
 131A Week 6
Countable and uncountable sets Discussion

Alan Zhou

Subsequences

Countability
I By countable, we mean “finite or countably infinite (in
bijection with N).”
I Some countably infinite sets:
I N (by definition)
I Z (proof later)
I Q (proof later)
 131A Week 6
Countable and uncountable sets Discussion

Alan Zhou

Subsequences

Countability
I By countable, we mean “finite or countably infinite (in
bijection with N).”
I Some countably infinite sets:
I N (by definition)
I Z (proof later)
I Q (proof later)
I the set of all intervals [a, b] with a, b ∈ Q
 131A Week 6
Countable and uncountable sets Discussion

Alan Zhou

Subsequences

Countability
I By countable, we mean “finite or countably infinite (in
bijection with N).”
I Some countably infinite sets:
I N (by definition)
I Z (proof later)
I Q (proof later)
I the set of all intervals [a, b] with a, b ∈ Q
I the set of all finite subsets of N
 131A Week 6
Countable and uncountable sets Discussion

Alan Zhou

Subsequences

Countability
I By countable, we mean “finite or countably infinite (in
bijection with N).”
I Some countably infinite sets:
I N (by definition)
I Z (proof later)
I Q (proof later)
I the set of all intervals [a, b] with a, b ∈ Q
I the set of all finite subsets of N
I Some uncountable sets:
 131A Week 6
Countable and uncountable sets Discussion

Alan Zhou

Subsequences

Countability
I By countable, we mean “finite or countably infinite (in
bijection with N).”
I Some countably infinite sets:
I N (by definition)
I Z (proof later)
I Q (proof later)
I the set of all intervals [a, b] with a, b ∈ Q
I the set of all finite subsets of N
I Some uncountable sets:
I R (proof later)
 131A Week 6
Countable and uncountable sets Discussion

Alan Zhou

Subsequences

Countability
I By countable, we mean “finite or countably infinite (in
bijection with N).”
I Some countably infinite sets:
I N (by definition)
I Z (proof later)
I Q (proof later)
I the set of all intervals [a, b] with a, b ∈ Q
I the set of all finite subsets of N
I Some uncountable sets:
I R (proof later)
I the set of all irrational numbers
 131A Week 6
Countable and uncountable sets Discussion

Alan Zhou

Subsequences

Countability
I By countable, we mean “finite or countably infinite (in
bijection with N).”
I Some countably infinite sets:
I N (by definition)
I Z (proof later)
I Q (proof later)
I the set of all intervals [a, b] with a, b ∈ Q
I the set of all finite subsets of N
I Some uncountable sets:
I R (proof later)
I the set of all irrational numbers
I the set of all subsets of N (Cantor diagonalisation)
 131A Week 6
Getting countable sets Discussion

Alan Zhou

Subsequences

Countability
 131A Week 6
Getting countable sets Discussion

Alan Zhou
I If f : A → B is an injective function and B is
Subsequences
countable, then A is countable.
Countability
 131A Week 6
Getting countable sets Discussion

Alan Zhou
I If f : A → B is an injective function and B is
Subsequences
countable, then A is countable.
Countability
I Subsets of countable sets are countable.
 131A Week 6
Getting countable sets Discussion

Alan Zhou
I If f : A → B is an injective function and B is
Subsequences
countable, then A is countable.
Countability
I Subsets of countable sets are countable.
I If g : B → A is a surjective function and B is
countable, then A is countable.
 131A Week 6
Getting countable sets Discussion

Alan Zhou
I If f : A → B is an injective function and B is
Subsequences
countable, then A is countable.
Countability
I Subsets of countable sets are countable.
I If g : B → A is a surjective function and B is
countable, then A is countable.
I If A and B are countable, then

A × B = {(a, b) | a ∈ A and b ∈ B}

is countable.
 131A Week 6
Getting countable sets Discussion

Alan Zhou
I If f : A → B is an injective function and B is
Subsequences
countable, then A is countable.
Countability
I Subsets of countable sets are countable.
I If g : B → A is a surjective function and B is
countable, then A is countable.
I If A and B are countable, then

A × B = {(a, b) | a ∈ A and b ∈ B}

is countable.
I If {Ai }i∈I is a collection of countable sets indexed by a
countable set I, then
[
Ai = {a | a ∈ Ai for some i ∈ I}
i∈I

is countable.
 131A Week 6
Countability of Z and Q Discussion

Alan Zhou

Subsequences

Countability
 131A Week 6
Countability of Z and Q Discussion

Alan Zhou

Subsequences

Countability

I Z is countable:
N 0 1 2 3 4 ···
Z 0 −1 1 −2 2 ···
I Z × N+ is countable.
 131A Week 6
Countability of Z and Q Discussion

Alan Zhou

Subsequences

Countability

I Z is countable:
N 0 1 2 3 4 ···
Z 0 −1 1 −2 2 ···
I Z × N+ is countable.
I Q is countable: The function Z × N+ → Q given by
(m, n) 7→ m/n is surjective.
 131A Week 6
Uncountability of R Discussion

Alan Zhou

Subsequences

Countability
 131A Week 6
Uncountability of R Discussion

Alan Zhou

Subsequences
Our general strategy for proving that R is uncountable will
Countability
proceed as follows:
 131A Week 6
Uncountability of R Discussion

Alan Zhou

Subsequences
Our general strategy for proving that R is uncountable will
Countability
proceed as follows:

I It suffices to show that [0, 1] is uncountable.

 131A Week 6
Uncountability of R Discussion

Alan Zhou

Subsequences
Our general strategy for proving that R is uncountable will
Countability
proceed as follows:

I It suffices to show that [0, 1] is uncountable. Suppose

for the sake of contradiction that it is countable, and let
(xn ) be an enumeration of [0, 1].
 131A Week 6
Uncountability of R Discussion

Alan Zhou

Subsequences
Our general strategy for proving that R is uncountable will
Countability
proceed as follows:

I It suffices to show that [0, 1] is uncountable. Suppose

for the sake of contradiction that it is countable, and let
(xn ) be an enumeration of [0, 1]. (An enumeration of a
set X is a sequence which contains every element of X.)
 131A Week 6
Uncountability of R Discussion

Alan Zhou

Subsequences
Our general strategy for proving that R is uncountable will
Countability
proceed as follows:

I It suffices to show that [0, 1] is uncountable. Suppose

for the sake of contradiction that it is countable, and let
(xn ) be an enumeration of [0, 1]. (An enumeration of a
set X is a sequence which contains every element of X.)
I Suppose we have sets I1 , I2 , . . . ⊂ [0, 1] with the
property that for every n, we have xn 6∈ In .
 131A Week 6
Uncountability of R Discussion

Alan Zhou

Subsequences
Our general strategy for proving that R is uncountable will
Countability
proceed as follows:

I It suffices to show that [0, 1] is uncountable. Suppose

for the sake of contradiction that it is countable, and let
(xn ) be an enumeration of [0, 1]. (An enumeration of a
set X is a sequence which contains every element of X.)
I Suppose we have sets I1 , I2 , . . . ⊂ [0, 1] with the
T that for every n, we have xn 6∈ In . Then
property
xn 6∈ ∞ j=1 Ij for any n.
 131A Week 6
Uncountability of R Discussion

Alan Zhou

Subsequences
Our general strategy for proving that R is uncountable will
Countability
proceed as follows:

I It suffices to show that [0, 1] is uncountable. Suppose

for the sake of contradiction that it is countable, and let
(xn ) be an enumeration of [0, 1]. (An enumeration of a
set X is a sequence which contains every element of X.)
I Suppose we have sets I1 , I2 , . . . ⊂ [0, 1] with the
T that for every n, we have xn 6∈ In . Then
property
xn 6∈ ∞ j=1 Ij for any n.
I If we can choose the sets In so that the intersection is
non-empty, then we will have found an element of [0, 1]
which is not equal to any xn , a contradiction.
 131A Week 6
Uncountability of R Discussion

Alan Zhou

Subsequences
Our general strategy for proving that R is uncountable will
Countability
proceed as follows:

I It suffices to show that [0, 1] is uncountable. Suppose

for the sake of contradiction that it is countable, and let
(xn ) be an enumeration of [0, 1]. (An enumeration of a
set X is a sequence which contains every element of X.)
I Suppose we have sets I1 , I2 , . . . ⊂ [0, 1] with the
T that for every n, we have xn 6∈ In . Then
property
xn 6∈ ∞ j=1 Ij for any n.
I If we can choose the sets In so that the intersection is
non-empty, then we will have found an element of [0, 1]
which is not equal to any xn , a contradiction. Thus our
goal is to show that this construction is possible.
 131A Week 6
Uncountability of R Discussion

Alan Zhou
Nested Intervals Theorem Subsequences
Let I1 ⊃ I2 ⊃ · · · be nested compact intervals, and write Countability
bn ] with an , bn ∈ R and an ≤ bn . If bn − an → 0,
In = [an , T
then I = ∞ j=1 consists of exactly one point.
 131A Week 6
Uncountability of R Discussion

Alan Zhou

Let (xn ) be an enumeration of [0, 1], and define I0 = [0, 1/3] Subsequences

or I0 = [2/3, 1], chosen so that x0 6∈ I0 . Countability

 131A Week 6
Uncountability of R Discussion

Alan Zhou

Let (xn ) be an enumeration of [0, 1], and define I0 = [0, 1/3] Subsequences

or I0 = [2/3, 1], chosen so that x0 6∈ I0 . Countability

Suppose n ∈ N is given and that we have defined a compact

interval In so that xn 6∈ In .
 131A Week 6
Uncountability of R Discussion

Alan Zhou

Let (xn ) be an enumeration of [0, 1], and define I0 = [0, 1/3] Subsequences

or I0 = [2/3, 1], chosen so that x0 6∈ I0 . Countability

Suppose n ∈ N is given and that we have defined a compact

interval In so that xn 6∈ In . We can then choose a compact
interval In+1 ⊂ In so that xn+1 6∈ In+1 and the length of
In+1 is 1/3 that of In .
 131A Week 6
Uncountability of R Discussion

Alan Zhou

Let (xn ) be an enumeration of [0, 1], and define I0 = [0, 1/3] Subsequences

or I0 = [2/3, 1], chosen so that x0 6∈ I0 . Countability

Suppose n ∈ N is given and that we have defined a compact

interval In so that xn 6∈ In . We can then choose a compact
interval In+1 ⊂ In so that xn+1 6∈ In+1 and the length of
In+1 is 1/3 that of In . (How?)

Following the reasoning in the “general strategy” slide, this

completes the proof of uncountability of R.