CARDINAL

NUMBERS
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Cardinal (cardinals for short), are a generalization

of the natural numbers used to
Numbers measure the cardinality (size) of sets.
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Cardinality is defined in terms of
bijective functions.
Cardinal Two sets have the same cardinality if, and only
if, there is a perfect one-to-one
Numbers correspondence (bijection) between the
elements of the two sets.
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What is the cardinal number of a set?

The number of distinct elements in a

finite set is called cardinal number.

It is denoted as n(A) and read as

‘the number of elements of the set’.
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Examples:
○ Set A = {2, 4, 5, 9, 15} has 5 elements.

Therefore, the cardinal number of set A is 5.

So, it is denoted as n(A) = 5.
○  
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Examples:
○ Set B = {w, x, y, z} has 4 elements.

Therefore, the cardinal number of set B is 4.

So, it is denoted as n(B) = 4.
○  
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Examples:
○ Set C = {Florida, New York, California}
has 3 elements.
Therefore, the cardinal number of set C is 3.
So, it is denoted as n(C) = 3.
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○ X = {letters in the word MALAYALAM}

Try this!
X = {M, A, L, Y}

Therefore, cardinal number of set X = 4

n(X) = 4
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○ Given, Y = {5, 6, 6, 7, 11, 6, 13, 11, 8}

Try this!
Y = {5, 6, 7, 11, 13, 8}

Therefore, cardinal number of set Y = 6

n(Y) = 6
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○ Given, Z = {natural numbers between 20 and

50, which are divisible by 7}
Try this!
Z = {21, 28, 35, 42, 49}

Therefore, cardinal number of set Z = 5

n(Z) = 5
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○ Q = {x | x is a factor of 20}

Try this!
Q = {1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 20}

Therefore, cardinal number of set Q is

n(Q) = 6
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In the case of infinite sets, the behavior is

more complex. A fundamental theorem
due to Georg Cantor shows that it is
possible for infinite sets to have different
cardinalities, and in particular the
cardinality of the set of real numbers is
greater than the cardinality of the set of
natural numbers.
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○  There
○ is a transfinite sequence of cardinal
numbers:
0,1,2,3,…,n,…; , , ,…,
○ This sequence starts with the natural numbers
including zero (finite cardinals), which are
followed by the aleph numbers (infinite
cardinals of well-ordered sets). The aleph
numbers are indexed by ordinal numbers.