Most recent change of UncountableSets

Edit made on March 21, 2010 by ColinWright at 09:14:00

Deleted text in red / Inserted text in green

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HEADERS_END
ARE ALL SETS COUNTABLE SETS?

Can all sets be put into one-to-one correspondence with the natural numbers ( size EQN:\aleph_0 pronounced aleph-null ).

Consider the real numbers between 0 and 1.

If they are countable then there exists an (infinite) list that starts like this which will include all real numbers between 0 and 1.

| 1 | 0.6735465 ... |
| 2 | 0.1834892 ... |
| 3 | 0.0001538 ... |
| 4 | 0.9918771 ... |
| 5 | 0.6881001 ... |
| 6 | 0.2892353 ... |
| 7 | 0.2596701 ... |

But we can construct a number between 0 and 1 which is not in the list !!!

Let N = 0.7919162 ...

It differs from the 1st number in the list in the first decimal place (increased by 1)

It differs from the 2nd number in the second decimal place.

It differs from the 3rd number in the third decimal place.


* It is constructed to differ from the nth number in the nth decimal place so it is different from every number in the list.

So the assumption that the real numbers between 0 and 1 can be listed i.e. put in one-to-one correspondence with the natural numbers is wrong.

Therefore, the real numbers are uncountable infinite.

The size of the uncountable infinite real numbers is given the transfinite number /c/ - called the size of the continuum.

Ummm interesting two different sizes of infinity !!!

! How are EQN:\large\aleph_0 and c related?

Now that we know there is more than one infinity, mathematicians optimistically called
"the next infinity" EQN:\aleph^_1. Now we know that
* EQN:\aleph_0<2^{\aleph_0}
* EQN:\aleph_0<c
The question is, how do EQN:2^{\aleph_0} and /c/ compare?

It turns out that EQN:2^{\aleph_0}=c.

Another question is this: is there an infinity between EQN:\aleph_0 and /c/ ?

Surprisingly, it is formally undecidable as to whether there is an infinity
between EQN:\aleph_0 and /c./ The Continuum Hypothesis was that they are equal,
but Paul Cohen showed in 1963 that the question cannot be decided from the usual
axioms of set theory (ZFC).

For more information see transfinite numbers, the continuum hypothesis and Georg Cantor.
See Uncountable Set and delete this page soon.