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PF 20

This document proves by induction that for any set with cardinality (number of elements) n, the set will have 2n subsets. It shows that this holds for the base case of a set with 0 elements. Then it assumes the statement is true for some set with cardinality n, and proves that it must also be true for a set with cardinality n+1 by adding one more element. This doubles the number of possible subsets from 2n to 2n+1.

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Beauponte Pouky Mezonlin
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59 views1 page

PF 20

This document proves by induction that for any set with cardinality (number of elements) n, the set will have 2n subsets. It shows that this holds for the base case of a set with 0 elements. Then it assumes the statement is true for some set with cardinality n, and proves that it must also be true for a set with cardinality n+1 by adding one more element. This doubles the number of possible subsets from 2n to 2n+1.

Uploaded by

Beauponte Pouky Mezonlin
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Prove:

n0, if the cardinality of a set is n, then the set has 2n subsets.



Proof by induction.
Basis step:
P(0) is true, because the set with cardinality 0 (the empty set) has 1 subset (itself)
and 20 = 1.

Inductive step:
Prove that if for some natural number n a set with cardinality n has 2n subsets, then
a set with cardinality n+1 has 2n+1 subsets.

Proof
Assume that for some natural number n, a set with cardinality n has 2n subsets.
Let T be a set such that |T| = n+1.
Enumerate the elements of T: T = {e1,e2 ,...en ,en +1} .

Let S = {e1,e2 ,...en }


Then |S|=n, so S has 2n subsets.

Note that T = S {en +1} , so every subset of S is also a subset of T.



Any subset of T either contains the element en +1, or it doesnt.
If a subset of T doesnt contain en +1, then it is also a subset of S, and there are 2n of

those subsets.
On the other hand, if a subset of T contains the element en +1, then it is formed by

including en +1 in one of the 2n subsets of S.

We have shown that T has 2n subsets containing en +1, and another 2n subsets not

containing en +1, so the total number of subsets of T is


2n + 2n = (2) 2n = 2n+1

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