Paper 4, Section II, 8E

Numbers and Sets | Part IA, 2018

Define what it means for a set to be countable.

Show that for any set XX, there is no surjection from XX onto the power set P(X)\mathcal{P}(X). Deduce that the set {0,1}N\{0,1\}^{\mathbb{N}} of all infinite 0−10-1 sequences is uncountable.

Let L\mathcal{L} be the set of sequences (Fn)n=0∞\left(F_{n}\right)_{n=0}^{\infty} of subsets F0⊂F1⊂F2⊂…F_{0} \subset F_{1} \subset F_{2} \subset \ldots of N\mathbb{N} such that ∣Fn∣=n\left|F_{n}\right|=n for all n∈Nn \in \mathbb{N} and ⋃nFn=N\bigcup_{n} F_{n}=\mathbb{N}. Let L0\mathcal{L}_{0} consist of all members (Fn)n=0∞\left(F_{n}\right)_{n=0}^{\infty} of L\mathcal{L} for which n∈Fnn \in F_{n} for all but finitely many n∈Nn \in \mathbb{N}. Let L1\mathcal{L}_{1} consist of all members (Fn)n=0∞\left(F_{n}\right)_{n=0}^{\infty} of L\mathcal{L} for which n∈Fn+1n \in F_{n+1} for all but finitely many n∈Nn \in \mathbb{N}. For each of L0\mathcal{L}_{0} and L1\mathcal{L}_{1} determine whether it is countable or uncountable. Justify your answers.

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