Proving that a subset of a countable set is countable

  • Context:
  • Thread starter Thread starter Mathmellow
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Set
Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
1 reply · 3K views
Mathmellow
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
I am trying to prove that any subset of a countable set is either finite or countable.

I know that a set $$S$$ is countable if there exists a bijection that takes S to $$\Bbb{N}$$. My first thought was to consider the subset $$V$$ of $$S$$. If $$V$$ is finite we are done, since we can always construct a finite subset of a countably infinite set.
So I guess in the case where $$V$$ is infinite we want to prove that there is a bijection $$\beta: V\to\Bbb{N}$$. However, I am not sure how to do this.

I would really appreciate it if someone could help me with this, so I can feel more comfortable with these types of problems in the future!
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Mathmellow said:
I am trying to prove that any subset of a countable set is either finite or countable.

I know that a set $$S$$ is countable if there exists a bijection that takes S to $$\Bbb{N}$$. My first thought was to consider the subset $$V$$ of $$S$$. If $$V$$ is finite we are done, since we can always construct a finite subset of a countably infinite set.
So I guess in the case where $$V$$ is infinite we want to prove that there is a bijection $$\beta: V\to\Bbb{N}$$. However, I am not sure how to do this.

I would really appreciate it if someone could help me with this, so I can feel more comfortable with these types of problems in the future!

One just has to show that any infinite subset of $\mathbb N$ is in bijection with $\mathbb N$.

Let $A\subseteq \mathbb N$ be infinite. Define a map $f:\mathbb N\to A$ by declaring $f(i)$ to be the $i$-th smallest element of $A$. Then $f$ is a bijection.