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Srivastava - Transfinite Numbers - What Is Infinity

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42 views

Srivastava - Transfinite Numbers - What Is Infinity

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arkapravabhandari9
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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GENERAL ⎜ ARTICLE

Transfinite Numbers
What is Infinity?

S M Srivastava

S M Srivastava is with the


Indian Statistical
Institute, Calcutta. He
received his PhD from the
Indian Statistical Institute
in 1980. His research
interests are in
Descriptive Set Theory.

1
The author would like to
gratefully acknowledge the
help received from S C Bagchi,
T Krishnan, B V Rao and H
Sarbadhikari while preparing
this article.

58 RESONANCE ⎜ March 1997


GENERAL ⎜ ARTICLE

How many points


are there on a
line? Which is
more in number –
points on a line or
lines in a plane?

RESONANCE ⎜ March 1997 59


GENERAL ⎜ ARTICLE

Say that sets A


and B are
equinumerous or
are of the same
cardinality, written
A ≡ B, if there
exists a one–one
map f from A onto
B.

2
An algebraic number is a
complex number which is a root
of a polynomial having rational
numbers for coefficients. For
eg: 2 is an algebraic number;
it satisfies x 2–2=0.

60 RESONANCE ⎜ March 1997


GENERAL ⎜ ARTICLE

Is there an
uncountable set of
real numbers of
cardinality less
than that of R ?

RESONANCE ⎜ March 1997 61


GENERAL ⎜ ARTICLE

62 RESONANCE ⎜ March 1997


GENERAL ⎜ ARTICLE

RESONANCE ⎜ March 1997 63


GENERAL ⎜ ARTICLE

64 RESONANCE ⎜ March 1997


GENERAL ⎜ ARTICLE

A hotel with
infinitely many
rooms even when
full can
accommodate as
many new guests
as already there!

RESONANCE ⎜ March 1997 65


GENERAL ⎜ ARTICLE

66 RESONANCE ⎜ March 1997


GENERAL ⎜ ARTICLE

RESONANCE ⎜ March 1997 67


GENERAL ⎜ ARTICLE

Address for Correspondence


S M Srivastava
Stat-Math Unit
Indian Statistical Institute
203 B T Road
Calcutta 700 035
e-mail: [email protected]

Suggested Reading

 K Kuratowski and A Mostowski. Set theory. North-Holland publishing company. Amsterdam, New York,
Oxford,1976.
 Gregory Moore. Zermelo's axiom of choice —its origin, development and influence. Springer-Verlag. New
York, 1982
 Georg Cantor. Contributions to the founding of the theory of transfinite numbers. Dover Publications Inc.
New York, 1992.
 Nicolas Bourbaki. Elements of the history of mathematics. Springer-Verlag. Berlin, Heidelberg, New
York,1994.
 Yiannis N Moschovakis. Notes on set theory. UTM. Springer-Verlag. New York, Berlin, Heidelberg, 1994

68 RESONANCE ⎜ March 1997

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