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Next: The Pigeonhole Principle, surjective Up: Finiteness09february2012 Previous: Definition of finiteness

The Pigeonhole Principle, injective version

We need to prove that the number of elements of a finite set is unambiguous.
We prove the Pigeonhole Principle: Proof:
For (J), assume that the proposition is false.
So for some integers $ m$ and $ n$ with $ m > n\ge 1$, we have an injection $ f: \mathbb{N}_m \rightarrow \mathbb{N}_n$.
We want to reach a contradiction.
First we observe that $ n > 1$ since if $ f: \mathbb{N}_m \rightarrow \mathbb{N}_1$ is a map and $ m \ge 2$, then, since $ \mathbb{N}_1 = \{1\}$, we have $ 1 \in \mathbb{N}_m$ and $ 2\in \mathbb{N}_m$, so $ f(1) = f(2) = 1$, yet $ 1 \ne 2$, so $ f$ cannot be injective.
Now take $ n > 1$ to be the smallest positive integer, so that the proposition is false; this exists by POW.
Let $ f(m) = k \in \mathbb{N}_n$.
Using the (injective) switching map $ S_{k, n}: \mathbb{N}_n \rightarrow \mathbb{N}_n$, define $ g = S_{k, n} \circ f$.
Then $ g$ is a well-defined map from $ \mathbb{N}_m$ to $ \mathbb{N}_n$ and is a composition of injections, so is injective.
Also we have $ g(m) = S_{k,n}(f(m)) = S_{k, n}(k) = n$.
Since $ g$ is injective, if $ t$ is an integer, such that $ 1 \le t< m$, we have $ g(t) \ne g(m)$ so $ g(t) \ne n$, so $ 1\le g(t) \le n-1$.
Now define $ h: \mathbb{N}_{m - 1} \rightarrow \mathbb{N}_{n -1}$ by the formula: $ h(t) = g(t)$, for each $ t \in \mathbb{N}_{m-1}$.
Then since $ g(t) < n$, for any $ t \in \mathbb{N}_{m-1}$ the map $ h$ is well-defined.
Also if $ h(s) = h(t)$, for $ s$ and $ t$ in $ \mathbb{N}_{m - 1}$, we have $ g(s) = g(t)$, so $ s = t$.
So $ h$ is an injection from $ \mathbb{N}_{m - 1}\rightarrow \mathbb{N}_{n-1}$ and $ m - 1> n - 1$.
This is contrary to the definition of $ n$, so theorem (J) is proved.

For (K), for some $ n \in\mathbb{N}$ let an injection $ f: \mathbb{N}_n \rightarrow \mathbb{N}_n$ be given, which is not a bijection.
By theorem (A), proved above, if $ f$ is not a bijection, then $ n > 1$ and there is an injection $ g: \mathbb{N}_n \rightarrow \mathbb{N}_{n - 1}$.
But this contradicts theorem (J), just proved above.
So $ f$ is a bijection and we are done.
next up previous
Next: The Pigeonhole Principle, surjective Up: Finiteness09february2012 Previous: Definition of finiteness
George A. J. Sparling 2012-02-09