Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2004/ia/paper-4/5e/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 ia Paper 4 5E Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Number the natural numbers from one. If the power set could be enumerated as , form . For each , membership of in is opposite to its membership in , so . This contradicts completeness of the enumeration. Thus the Cantor diagonal argument proves that the power set is an uncountable set.
For a finite subset , define . This is a nonnegative integer and the map is injective: if two finite subsets differ, let be their largest differing element. Its contribution exceeds the sum of all smaller possible contributions, so their codes differ. There are infinitely many singleton subsets. Hence the countability of finite subsets of a countable set here is countable infinitude.
To treat all bijections, associate to every subset the permutation that swaps and when , and fixes both when . These disjoint pair swaps define a bijection of . Different subsets give different permutations, so the map from the power set into is injective. Therefore is an uncountable set.
Every finitely supported permutation fixes all elements above some . A bijection fixing that tail must permute : it cannot send a smaller element into the fixed tail without violating injectivity. There are exactly such permutations. Thusis a countable union of finite sets. Enumerate first by , then by one of the finitely many permutations at that ; duplicates can be omitted. Infinitely many distinct pair swaps belong to , so is countably infinite. The full family is uncountable, while the finitely supported family is countably infinite.
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