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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.
The power set of the set of natural numbers can be put in a one-to-one correspondence with the set of real numbers (see Cardinality of the continuum). The power set of a set S, together with the operations of union, intersection and complement, is a Σ-algebra over S and can be viewed as the prototypical example of a Boolean algebra.
Assuming the existence of an infinite set N consisting of all natural numbers and assuming the existence of the power set of any given set allows the definition of a sequence N, P(N), P(P(N)), P(P(P(N))), … of infinite sets where each set is the power set of the set preceding it. By Cantor's theorem, the cardinality of each set in this ...
All subsets of a set S (all possible choices of its elements) form the power set P(S). Georg Cantor proved that the power set is always larger than the set, i.e., |P(S)| > |S|. A special case of Cantor's theorem is that the set of all real numbers R cannot be enumerated by natural numbers, that is, R is uncountable: |R| > |N|.
Then (in the von Neumann formulation of cardinality) C is a set and therefore has a power set 2 C which, by Cantor's theorem, has cardinality strictly larger than C. Demonstrating a cardinality (namely that of 2 C) larger than C, which was assumed to be the greatest cardinal number, falsifies the definition of C. This contradiction establishes ...
The example mapping f happens to correspond to the example enumeration s in the picture above. A generalized form of the diagonal argument was used by Cantor to prove Cantor's theorem: for every set S, the power set of S—that is, the set of all subsets of S (here written as P(S))—cannot be in bijection with S itself. This proof proceeds as ...
Bijective function from N to the set E of even numbers. Although E is a proper subset of N, both sets have the same cardinality. N does not have the same cardinality as its power set P(N): For every function f from N to P(N), the set T = {n∈N: n∉f(n)} disagrees with every set in the range of f, hence f cannot be surjective.
The set of all subsets of N is denoted by P(N), the power set of N. Cantor generalized his argument to an arbitrary set A and the set consisting of all functions from A to {0, 1}. [4] Each of these functions corresponds to a subset of A, so his generalized argument implies the theorem: The power set P(A) has greater cardinality than A.