Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2025/ii/paper-3/16h/b/solution

Apply the stated cardinal comparability principle to and its Hartogs ordinal . The Hartogs theorem rules out an injection , so comparability supplies an injection
Order by exactly when . This is the restriction of an ordinal well-order and therefore well-orders . Hence every set can be well-ordered. The well-ordering theorem is equivalent to the axiom of choice: for a family of nonempty sets, well-order its union and choose the least member of each set. The comparison statement therefore implies choice.

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