• mkwt@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    5 hours ago

    It’s pretty well settled mathematics that infinities are “the same size” if you can draw any kind of 1-to-1 mapping function between the two sets. If it’s 1-to-1, then every member of set A is paired off with a member of B, and there are no elements left over on either side.

    In the example with even integers y versus all integers x, you can define the relation x <–> y = 2*x. So the two sets “have the same size”.

    But the real numbers are provably larger than any of the integer sets. Meaning every possible mapping function leaves some reals leftover.