Countability of Sets

• Sets
• relations
• functions
• One-to-one correspondence
• Countable
• Uncountable
• Infinite number of infinite
sets of different sizes
• Continuum hypothesis
 Set: is a collection of well defined objects

Example: {1, 3, 4, 6, 8}
Example: {1, 2, 3, …, 66} or {2, 4, 6, 8, …}
Example: {x : x is an even positive integer} which
we read as:
the set of x such that x is an even positive integer
Example: {x : x is a prime number less than a
million} which we read as:
The set of x such that x is a prime number less than a
million
 Cartesian Product
• Definition: Let A and B be two sets. The Cartesian product of
A and B, denoted AxB, is the set of all ordered pairs (a,b)
where aA and bB
AxB = { (a,b) | (aA)  (b  B) }
• The Cartesian product is also known as the cross product
• Definition: A subset of a Cartesian product, R  AxB is called a
relation.
• Note: AxB  BxA unless A= or B= or A=B. Find a counter
example to prove this.
 Cartesian Product
• Cartesian Products can be generalized for any
n-tuple
• Definition: The Cartesian product of n sets,
A1,A2, …, An, denoted A1A2… An, is
A1A2… An ={ (a1,a2,…,an) | ai  Ai for i=1,2,…,n}
 Relations and Functions
• A relation R from A to B is a subset of AxB
• A function from A to B is a relation that
associates every elements of A to one and
only one element of B.
 Is this a Function? (I)

X Y
 Is this a Function? (II)

X Y
 One-to-One Functions

f : X  Y is 1-1 (injective) if
for each y  Y , there is at most one x  X
such that f ( x)  y

X Y
 Equivalent Criteria

For x1 , x2  X ,
if f ( x1 )  f ( x2 ) then x1  x2

X Y
 Example 1
Determine if the given function is injective. Prove your
answer. f :Z  Z
f (n)  3n  1
 Onto Functions

f : X  Y is onto (surjective) if
the range of f is Y .

X Y
 Equivalent Criteria

y  Y ,  x  X such that f ( x)  y

X Y
 Example 2
Determine if the given function is surjective. Prove your
answer. f :Z  Z
f (n)  3n  1
Counting Problems…

X Y
?
X  Y
Counting Problems…

X Y
?
X  Y
 Bijections

f : X  Y is bijective if it is both 1-1 and onto.

 Inverse Functions

If f : X  Y is bijective
then its inverse function f 1 : Y  X exists
and is also bijective.
Equivalent Sets
 Example 3
The set of odd integers (O) and even integers (E)
are equivalent.

Plan:
1. Define a function from O to E.
2. Show that the function is well defined.
3. Show that the function is bijective.
Countable Sets
 One-to-one correspondence
Two sets M and N are equivalent … if it is possible to put
them, by some law, in such a relation to one another that to
every element of each one of them corresponds one and only one
element of the other.

If M and N are equivalent we often say that they have t

same cardinality
If M and N are finite this means they have the same
number of elements
But what about the case when M and N are infinite?
 Countable
N = {1, 2, 3, …} the set of natural numbers
E = {2, 4, 6, …} the set of even natural numbers
N: 1 2 3 4 5 … n …

E: 2 4 6 8 10 … 2n …
 Countable
N = {1, 2, 3, …} the set of natural numbers
E = {2, 4, 6, …} the set of even natural numbers
N: 1 2 3 4 5 … n …

E: 2 4 6 8 10 … 2n …

A set is infinite if it can be put into one-to-one

correspondence with a proper subset of itself.
A proper subset does not contain all the
elements of the set.
 Countable
N = {1, 2, 3, …} the set of natural numbers
E = {2, 4, 6, …} the set of even natural numbers
N: 1 2 3 4 5 … n …

E: 2 4 6 8 10 … 2n …

Z = {… -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, …} the set of all integers

N: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 …

Z: 0 1 -1 2 -2 3 -3 4 -4 …
 Any set that could be put into one-to-one
correspondence with N is called countably infinite or
denumerable
The symbol he chose to denote the size of a
countable set was ℵ0 which is read as aleph-nought
or aleph-null.
It is named after the first letter of the Hebrew
alphabet.

Cardinality of E = cardinality of Z = cardinality of N = ℵ0

 The positive rationals are countable
the first row lists the integers,
the second row lists the ‘halves’,
the third row the thirds
the fourth row the quarters
and so on.

We then ‘snake around’ the

diagonals of this array of numbers,
deleting any numbers that we have
seen before: this gives the list

This list contains all the positive fractions, so the positive fractions are
countable.
 The Reals
We will prove that the set of real numbers in the interval from 0 up to 1 is
not countable. We use proof by contradiction
Suppose they are countable then we can create a list like
1  x1 = 0.256173…
2  x2 = 0.654321…
3  x3 = 0.876241…
4  x4 = 0.60000…
5  x5 = 0.67678…
6  x6 = 0.38751…
. . . .
. . . .
n  xn = 0.a1a2a3a4a5 …an …
. . . .
. . . .
1  x1 = 0.256173… Construct the number
2  x2 = 0.654321… b = 0.b1b2b3b4b5 …
3  x3 = 0.876241…
4  x4 = 0.60000…
Choose
5  x5 = 0.67678… b1 not equal to 2 say 4
6  x6 = 0.38751… b2 not equal to 5 say 7
b3 not equal to 6 say 8
n  xn = 0.a1a2a3a4a5 …an …
. . . . b4 not equal to 0 say 3
. . . . b5 not equal to 8 say 7

bn not equal to an
Then b = 0.b1b2b3b4b5 … = 0.47837… is NOT in the list
The reals are uncountable!
1  x1 = 0.256173… Construct the number
2  x2 = 0.654321…
b = 0.b1b2b3b4b5 …
3  x3 = 0.876241…
4  x4 = 0.60000… Choose
5  x5 = 0.67678… b1 not equal to 2 say is 4
6  x6 = 0.38751…
b2 not equal to 2 say is 7
n  xn = 0.a1a2a3a4a5 …an … b3 not equal to 2 say is 8
. . . . b4 not equal to 2 say is 3
. . . . b5 not equal to 2 say is 7

bn not equal to an
The cardinality of the reals is the same as that
of the interval of the reals between 0 and 1

The cardinality of the reals is

often denoted by c
for the continuum of real
numbers.

2𝑥−1
y=
𝑥− 𝑥 2
 The rationals can be thought of as precisely the collection
of decimals which terminate or repeat e.g.
5/4 = 1.25000000 …
17/7 = 2.428571428571428571 …
-133/990 = - 0.134343434…
The decimal expansion of a fraction must A repeating decimal is a fraction e.g.
terminate or repeat because when you Consider x = 0.123123123123 …
divide the bottom integer into the top one
there are only a limited number of
remainders you can get. This has a repeating block of length 3

1/7 starts with Multiply by 103 to get

0.1 remainder 3 then 1000 x = 123.123123123 …

Subtract x
0.14 remainder 2 then
x = 0.123123123 …
0.142 remainder 6 then
0.1428 remainder 4 then 999x = 123
0.14285 remainder 5 then
0.142857 remainder 1 which we have x = 123/999 = 41/333
had before at the start so process repeats

The irrationals are those real numbers which are not rational
So their decimal expansions do not terminate or repeat
 Cardinality of some sets
Set Description Cardinality
Natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, … ℵ0
Integers …, -5, -4, -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, … ℵ0
Rational numbers or fractions All the decimals which terminate or ℵ0
repeat
Irrational numbers All the decimals which do not c
terminate or repeat
Real numbers All decimals c
 Some Results
• Theorem 1:
– Countable Union of Countable sets is countable
– The set of all C programs is countable
– The set of all functions from N to N is
uncountable.
– There are functions which cannot be computed by
a C program
 Power set of a set
Given a set A, the power set of A, denoted by P[A], is the
set of all subsets of A.
A = {a, b, c}
Then A has eight = 23 subsets and the power set of A
is the set containing these eight subsets.
P[A] = { { }, {a}, {b}, {c}, {a, b}, {a, c}, {b, c}, {a, b, c} }

{ } is the empty set and if a set has n elements it has 2n subsets.

The power set is itself a set

No set can be placed in one-to-one
correspondence with its power set
Elements of A Elements of P[A]
(i.e. subsets of A)
a {c, d}
b {e}
c {b, c, d, e}
d {}
e A
f {a, c, e, g, …}
g {b, k, m, …}

. .
. .
. .
 No set can be placed in one-to-one
correspondence with its power set
Elements of A Elements of P[A]
(i.e. subsets of A)
a {c, d}
b {e}
c {b, c, d, e}
d {}
e A
f {a, c, e, g, …}
g {b, k, m, …}

. .
. .
. .
B is the set of each and every element of the original set A that is not a
member of the subset with which it is matched.
B = {a, b, d, f, g, …}
 Now B is just a subset of A so must appear
somewhere in the right-hand column and so is
matched with some element of A say z
. .
. .
. .
z B

. .
. .
. .
 Now B is just a subset of A so must appear
somewhere in the right-hand column and so is
matched with some element of A say z
. .
. .
. .
z B

. .
. .
. .

Is z an element of B?
 Case 1: Suppose z is an element of B
Then z satisfies the defining property of B which is that
it consists of elements which do not belong to their
matching subset so z does not belong to B!
Contradiction

. .
. .
. .
z B

. .
. .
. .
 Case 2: Suppose z is not an element of B
Then z satisfies the defining property of B which is that
it consists of elements which do not belong to their
matching subset so z does belong to B!
Contradiction!

. .
. .
. .
z B

. .
. .
. .
 Infinity of infinities
Reals have smaller cardinality than the power set
of the reals.
Which is smaller than the power set of the power
set of the reals
Which is smaller than the power set of the power
set of the power set of the reals
Which is smaller than the power set of the power
set of the power set of the reals
etc!
 ℵ
𝐜 =𝟐𝟎
Indeed we can show that the reals have the
cardinality of the power set of the natural
numbers which is often written as above
 Continuum hypothesis
The Continuum hypothesis states:
there is no transfinite cardinal falling strictly
between ℵ0 and c

Work of Gödel (1940) and of Cohen (1963)

together implied that the continuum hypothesis
was independent of the other axioms of set
theory