ADA University Javanshir Azizov

Lecture 3
Cardinality (Size)
Question 1. When do two sets have the same size (cardinality)?
Georg Cantor answered this question in the 1800s, stating that two sets have the same
size if the elements of these sets can be paired off.

For instance, {1, 2, 3} and {Cantor, Gödel, Cohen} are of the same size.

Using the language of functions we do the definition more precise.

1. Cardinality, Finite and Infinite Sets

Definition 1 (Cardinality). Two sets A and B have the same cardinality if there exists
a bijection f : A → B.

With this new concept comes some new notation:

1. If A and B have the same cardinality, we write |A| = |B|.
2. If |A| = |{1, . . . , n}| (A has the same cardinality as {1, 2, 3, ..., n} for some n ∈ N), we
write |A| := n, and say A to have n elements.
3. If A is empty, we write |A| := 0, and say A to have 0 elements.
4. If there exists an injection f : A → B, we write|A| ≤ |B|.
5. If |A| ≤ |B| but |A| =
̸ |B|, we write|A| < |B|.

Definition 2. If |A| := n, for some n ∈ {0} ∪ N, we say A is finite. We say A is

infinite or “of infinite cardinality” if A is not finite.

We state without proof that A and B have the same cardinality if and only if |A| ≤ |B|
and |B| ≤ |A|. This is the so-called Cantor–Bernstein–Schröder theorem.

2. Countable and Uncountable sets

The truly interesting cases of cardinality are infinite sets. We will distinguish two types
of infinite cardinality.

Definition 3. If |A| = |N|, then A is countably infinite.

Remark 1. In other words A is countably infinite if there exists a bijection f : N → A. Then

corresponding to each n ∈ N there is a unique element f (n) in A, and ∀a ∈ A, ∃!n ∈ N such
that f (n) = A. Thus the elements of A can be described as f (1), f (2), ..., f (n),... or as a1 ,
a2 , ..., an ,... showing that the elements of A are indexed by the set N. That is, we can index
the elements of A in the form of a1 , a2 , ..., an ,...

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Definition 4. If A is finite or countably infinite, we say A is countable. Otherwise,

we say A is uncountable.

The cardinality of N is usually denoted as ℵ0 (read as aleph-naught).

Theorem 1. If |A| = |B| and |B| = |C|, then |A| = |C|.

Proof : Suppose that |A| = |B| and |B| = |C|, then there exist bijections f : A → B and
g : B → C.
Let h : A → C be a function defined by h(x) = (g ◦ f )(x). We want to prove that h is a
bijection.
If h(x1 ) = h(x2 ), then g(f (x1 )) = g(f (x2 )). Since g is injective, f (x1 ) = f (x2 ). Hence,
x1 = x2 , since f is injective. Therefore, h is injective.
Let z ∈ C. Since g is surjective, ∃y ∈ B such that g(y) = z. Since f is surjective, ∃x ∈ A
such that f (x) = y. Then h(x) = g(f (x)) = g(y) = z. Therefore, the map h is surjective.

By using Remark 1 the following lemma can easily be proved. It is left to readers.

Lemma 1. Every infinite subset of a countable set A is countable.

Example 1. There are a few key theorems that we can prove with this new concept:

1. |{2n | n ∈ N}| = |N| (The set of even numbers is countable),

2. |{2n − 1 | n ∈ N}| = |N| (The set of odd numbers is countable),

3. |Z| = |N| (The set of integer numbers is countable),

4. |Q| = |N| (The set of rational numbers is countable).

The first two statements can be summarized by Feynman: "There are twice as many
numbers as numbers."

Proof :
1. Define the function f : N → {2n | n ∈ N} as f (n) = 2n. If f (n) = f (m) then 2n =
2m =⇒ n = m, therefore, f is 1-1. Furthermore, f is also onto, because if m ∈ {2n |
n ∈ N} then ∃n ∈ N such that m = 2n = f (n).
2. The second statement can be proven similarly.
3. and 4. The proofs are left as a Homework assignment.
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Question 2. Does there exist a set A such that |N| < |A|?

Definition 5. The power set of a set A, denoted by P(A), is the set of all subsets of
A. That is,
P(A) = {B | B ⊂ A}

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For instance,

1. A = ∅ then P(A) = {∅}.

2. A = {1}, then P(A) = {∅, {1}}.

3. A = {1, 2}, then P(A) = {∅, {1}, {2}, {1, 2}}.

In general, if |A| = n then |P(A)| = 2n . This is why we call P(A) the power set of A.

3. Cantor’s Theorem

Theorem 2 (Cantor). Let A be a set. Then |A| < |P(A)|. In particular, there exists
no surjection from A onto |P(A)|.

Proof : Define the function f : A → P(A) by f (x) = {x}. Then, f is 1-1. Thus,
|A| ≤ |P(A)|. To finish the proof now all we need to show that |A| =
̸ |P(A)|. We will
do so through contradiction. Suppose that |A| = |P(A)|. Then, there exists a surjection
g : A → P(A). Let
B := {x ∈ A | x ∈
/ g(x)} ∈ P(A).
Since g is surjective, there exists a b ∈ A such that g(b) = B. There are two cases:

1. If b ∈ B, then b ∈
/ g(b) = B =⇒ b ∈
/ B.

2. If b ∈
/ B, then b ∈ g(b) = B =⇒ b ∈ B.

In either case we obtain a contradiction. Thus, g is not surjective =⇒ |A| =

̸ |P(A)|.

One particular consequence of this theorem is that there exist uncountable sets, as P(N)
must be uncountable. The theorem also says that there in fact exist progressively larger and
larger infinite sets N, P(N), P(P(N)), P(P(P(N))), etc.

Corollary 1. For all n ∈ N ∪ {0}, n < 2n .

Remark 2. This can also be shown by induction.

Exercises
Exercise 1. Prove that

1. |N| = |N \ {1, 2}|.

2. |N| = |N \ {2, 3, 6}|.

Exercise 2. Show that N × N is a countably infinite set.

Exercise 3. Prove that

1. |{2n − 1 | n ∈ N}| = |N| (The set of odd numbers is countable),

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2. |Z| = |N| (The set of integer numbers is countable),

3. |Q| = |N| (The set of rational numbers is countable).

Exercise 4. Give a bijection between N and a proper subset of itself.

Exercise 5. Give an example of a countably infinite collection of finite sets A1 , A2 , ..., whose
union is not a finite set.

Exercise 6. Determine the number of elements in P(S), the collection of all subsets of S,
for each of the following sets:

a) S := {1, 2},

b) S := {1, 2, 3},

c) S := {1, 2, 3, 4}