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There are two ways to define the "cardinality of a set": The cardinality of a set A is defined as its equivalence class under equinumerosity. A representative set is designated for each equivalence class. The most common choice is the initial ordinal in that class. This is usually taken as the definition of cardinal number in axiomatic set theory.
The notion of cardinality, as now understood, was formulated by Georg Cantor, the originator of set theory, in 1874–1884. Cardinality can be used to compare an aspect of finite sets. For example, the sets {1,2,3} and {4,5,6} are not equal, but have the same cardinality, namely three.
As a consequence, the cardinality of the real numbers, which is the same as that of the power set of the integers, is strictly larger than the cardinality of the integers; see Cardinality of the continuum for details. The theorem is named for Georg Cantor, who first stated and proved it at the end of the 19th century.
In set theory, the cardinality of the continuum is the cardinality or "size" of the set of real numbers, sometimes called the continuum. It is an infinite cardinal ...
A set A is said to have cardinality smaller than or equal to the cardinality of a set B, if there exists a one-to-one function (an injection) from A into B. This is denoted |A| ≤ |B|. If A and B are not equinumerous, then the cardinality of A is said to be strictly smaller than the cardinality of B. This is denoted |A| < |B|.
The set of all finite ordinals, called ω or ω 0 (where ω is the lowercase Greek letter omega), has cardinality ℵ 0. A set has cardinality ℵ 0 if and only if it is countably infinite, that is, there is a bijection (one-to-one correspondence) between it and the natural numbers. Examples of such sets are
In set theory, a regular cardinal is a cardinal number that is equal to its own cofinality. More explicitly, this means that κ {\displaystyle \kappa } is a regular cardinal if and only if every unbounded subset C ⊆ κ {\displaystyle C\subseteq \kappa } has cardinality κ {\displaystyle \kappa } .
As is standard in set theory, we denote by the least infinite ordinal, which has cardinality ; it may be identified with the set of natural numbers.. A number of cardinal characteristics naturally arise as cardinal invariants for ideals which are closely connected with the structure of the reals, such as the ideal of Lebesgue null sets and the ideal of meagre sets.