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We need to prove that the number of elements of a finite set is unambiguous.
We prove the Pigeonhole Principle:
- (J)
For
and
positive integers, let
be an injection.
Then
.
- (K) Also if
, then
is a bijection.
Proof:
For (J), assume that the proposition is false.
So for some integers
and
with
, we have an injection
.
We want to reach a contradiction.
First we observe that
since if
is a map and
, then, since
, we have
and
, so
, yet
, so
cannot be injective.
Now take
to be the smallest positive integer, so that the proposition is false; this exists by POW.
Let
.
Using the (injective) switching map
, define
.
Then
is a well-defined map from
to
and is a composition of injections, so is injective.
Also we have
.
Since
is injective, if
is an integer, such that
, we have
so
, so
.
Now define
by the formula:
, for each
.
Then since
, for any
the map
is well-defined.
Also if
, for
and
in
, we have
, so
.
So
is an injection from
and
.
This is contrary to the definition of
, so theorem (J) is proved.
For (K), for some
let an injection
be given, which is not a bijection.
By theorem (A), proved above, if
is not a bijection, then
and there is an injection
.
But this contradicts theorem (J), just proved above.
So
is a bijection and we are done.
Next: The Pigeonhole Principle, surjective
Up: Finiteness09february2012
Previous: Definition of finiteness
George A. J. Sparling
2012-02-09