Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2001/ia/paper-4/1e/a/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2001 ia Paper 4 1E a Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Suppose were a surjection onto the power set of the set . Form the subsetSurjectivity would give with . But then holds exactly when , a contradiction. Hence no such surjection exists, and in particular there is no bijection between a set and its power set. This is the diagonal construction in Cantor's theorem; it also covers the empty set, whose power set has one element.
New to topics? Read the docs here!