Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 18 3 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Let be a representable functor, and let be the categorical limit of a small diagram . A morphism is uniquely equivalent to a family satisfying for every .
Such compatible families are exactly the elements of the categorical limit of the set-valued diagram . Consequently the canonical comparisonis a bijection. Transporting it through the representing natural isomorphism proves that preserves every small limit that exists in . This proves that covariant representables preserve limits. For an empty diagram this says that maps into a terminal object form a singleton.