24.

118: Paradox and Infinity, Fall 2017

Problem Set 1: Infinite Cardinalities
How these problems will be graded:

• In Part I there is no need to justify your answers. Assessment will be

based on whether you give the correct answer.
• In Part II you must justify your answers. Assessment will be based on both
whether you give the correct answer and on how your answers are justified.
(In some problem sets I will ask you to answer questions that don’t have
clear answers. Even if it is unclear whether your answer is correct, it can
be clear whether or not the reasons you have given in support of your
answer are good ones.)
• No answer may consist of more than 150 words. Longer answers will
not be given credit. (Showing your work in a calculation does not count
towards the word limit.)
• You may consult published literature and the web. You must, however,
credit all sources. Failure to do so constitutes plagiarism and can have
serious consequences. For advice about when and how to credit sources
see: https://integrity.mit.edu/

Part I
1. Let A be a set and let R be a relation that holds amongst members of that set. Then:

• R is reflexive on A if and only if: for any a ∈ A, aRa.

• R is symmetric on A if and only if: for any a, b ∈ A, if aRb then bRa.
• R is transitive on A if and only if: for any a, b, c ∈ A, if aRb and bRc then
aRc.

(Example: Let A be the set of people, and let R be the relation “having the same
birthday as”. R is reflexive, since everyone has the same birthday as herself. R
is symmetric, since whenever a has the same birthday as b, b will have the same
birthday as a. And R is transitive: for any three people a, b, and c, if a has the same
birthday as b, and b has the same birthday as c, then a has the same birthday as c.)

(a) Consider the relation “is less than or equal to”. Is this relation: (i) reflexive,
(ii) symmetric, and (iii) transitive on the set of natural numbers? (6 points.)
(b) There are ten guests at a dinner party, sitting around a large table. Consider
the relation R such that guest a bears R to guest b just in case a’s seat is
immediately adjacent to b’s seat. Is R: (i) reflexive, (ii) symmetric, and (iii)
transitive on the set of guests? (6 points.)

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 2. For each of the following functions f (x) from A to B determine whether the function
is injective and whether it is surjective.

(a) (4 points)
f (x) = x + 2
A = {x : x is an integer}
B = {x : x is an integer}
(b) (4 points)
f (x) = x2
A = {x : 1 ≤ x ≤ 10}
B = {x : 1 ≤ x ≤ 100}
(c) (4 points)
f (x) = x2
A = {x : −5 ≤ x ≤ 5}
B = {0, 1, 4, 9, 16, 25}

3. Say that a sequence of objects is dense if and only if between any two members of
the sequence there is a third. Must a sequence have more elements than there are
natural numbers in order to be dense? (4 points.)

4. Between which of the following pairs of infinite sets is it possible to construct a

bijection:

(a) The set of natural numbers and the set of prime numbers. (2 points.)
(b) The set of prime numbers and the set of real numbers. (2 points.)
(c) The set of rational numbers and the real numbers between 0 and 1. (2 points.)
(d) The set of real numbers and the power set of the real numbers. (2 points.)

5. Suppose that Hilbert’s Hotel is completely full. We know that when as many new
guests as there are natural numbers show up, the new guests can be accommodated.
Now suppose that as many new guests as there are real numbers show up. Can they
be accommodated? (4 points.)

Part II
6. Show that there is a bijection between the integers (. . . -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, . . . ) and
the prime numbers. (You may assume that there are infinitely many prime numbers.)
(10 points)

7. Show that there is a bijection between the natural numbers and the set of all pairs
hn, mi for n and m natural numbers. (10 points)

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 8. Show that there cannot be a bijection between the natural numbers and the set of
all functions from the natural numbers to the set {a, b, c, d, e}. (10 points)

9. Consider the following infinite tree:

0 1

0 1 0 1

0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1

0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1

..
.

(When fully spelled out, the tree contains one row for each natural number. The
zero-th row contains one node, the first row contains two nodes, the second row
contains four nodes, and, in general, the nth row contains 2n nodes.)
Is there a bijection between the nodes of this tree and the natural numbers? (15
points)

10. Is there a bijection between the paths of this tree and the natural numbers? (A path
is an infinite sequence of nodes which starts at the top of the tree and contains a
node at every row, with each node connected to its successor by an edge. Paths can
be represented as infinite sequences of zeroes and ones.) Don’t forget to justify your
answers! (15 points)