Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2025 ii Paper 3 16H a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
By choice-function well-ordering construction, use transfinite recursion to choosewhenever the set on the right is nonempty. The chosen elements are distinct, so if this construction continued through the Hartogs theorem ordinal , the map would inject into , a contradiction. It therefore stops at some ordinal . At the stopping stage every element of has been selected, and henceis a bijection .
Assuming the axiom of choice, every set has such a choice function on its nonempty subsets. Transporting the membership order on across the bijection well-orders . Thus the axiom of choice implies the well-ordering theorem.