How to Prove the Cardinality of Unions of Infinite Sets?

mufq15
Messages
7
Reaction score
0

Homework Statement


Prove that the union of c sets of cardinality c has cardinality c.


Homework Equations





The Attempt at a Solution


Well, I could look for a one-to-one and onto function... maybe mapping the union of c intervaks to the reals, or something? I know how to demonstrate that a countable union of countable sets is countable, by showing how to label them.
I'm having a hard time with this one, though.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
\mathbb{R}^2 = \bigcup _{r \in \mathbb{R}} (\mathbb{R} \times \{ r\} )

This should give you an easy way to associate a c-union of c-sets with R2. Now all you need is a bijection between R and R2.
 
Ohh, I think I finally get it! (after thinking about it for a loong while...) Infinity is hard for me to wrap my head around. Thanks a lot for your help.
 
There are two things I don't understand about this problem. First, when finding the nth root of a number, there should in theory be n solutions. However, the formula produces n+1 roots. Here is how. The first root is simply ##\left(r\right)^{\left(\frac{1}{n}\right)}##. Then you multiply this first root by n additional expressions given by the formula, as you go through k=0,1,...n-1. So you end up with n+1 roots, which cannot be correct. Let me illustrate what I mean. For this...
Back
Top