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Cantor's diagonal argument (among various similar names [note 1]) is a mathematical proof that there are infinite sets which cannot be put into one-to-one correspondence with the infinite set of natural numbers – informally, that there are sets which in some sense contain more elements than there are positive integers.
This is known as Cantor's theorem. The argument below is a modern version of Cantor's argument that uses power sets (for his original argument, see Cantor's diagonal argument). By presenting a modern argument, it is possible to see which assumptions of axiomatic set theory are used.
Cantor's theorem and its proof are closely related to two paradoxes of set theory. Cantor's paradox is the name given to a contradiction following from Cantor's theorem together with the assumption that there is a set containing all sets, the universal set. In order to distinguish this paradox from the next one discussed below, it is important ...
Cantor gave two proofs that the cardinality of the set of integers is strictly smaller than that of the set of real numbers (see Cantor's first uncountability proof and Cantor's diagonal argument). His proofs, however, give no indication of the extent to which the cardinality of the integers is less than that of the real numbers.
This theorem is proved using Cantor's first uncountability proof, which differs from the more familiar proof using his diagonal argument. The title of the article, " On a Property of the Collection of All Real Algebraic Numbers " ("Ueber eine Eigenschaft des Inbegriffes aller reellen algebraischen Zahlen"), refers to its first theorem: the set ...
Diagonal argument can refer to: Diagonal argument (proof technique), proof techniques used in mathematics. A diagonal argument, in mathematics, is a technique employed in the proofs of the following theorems: Cantor's diagonal argument (the earliest) Cantor's theorem; Russell's paradox; Diagonal lemma. Gödel's first incompleteness theorem
Georg Ferdinand Ludwig Philipp Cantor (/ ˈ k æ n t ɔːr / KAN-tor; German: [ˈɡeːɔʁk ˈfɛʁdinant ˈluːtvɪç ˈfiːlɪp ˈkantoːɐ̯]; 3 March [O.S. 19 February] 1845 – 6 January 1918 [1]) was a mathematician who played a pivotal role in the creation of set theory, which has become a fundamental theory in mathematics.
The terms "diagonal lemma" or "fixed point" do not appear in Kurt Gödel's 1931 article or in Alfred Tarski's 1936 article. Rudolf Carnap (1934) was the first to prove the general self-referential lemma , [ 6 ] which says that for any formula F in a theory T satisfying certain conditions, there exists a formula ψ such that ψ ↔ F (°#( ψ ...