Exercise 9.1.1

If J i ( i I ) are mutually disjoint sets and J = i I J i , and if κ j ( j J ) are cardinals, then

i I ( j J i κ j ) = j J κ j

(associativity of )

Answers

Proof. Suppose that A j j J are mutually disjoint sets where | A j | = κ j for every j J . Then, by definition, we have that

j J κ j = | j J A j | . (1)

Now let S = { J i i I } , from which it is trivial to show that S = J . It follows from Exercise 2.3.10 that

j J A j = a S A a = C S ( a C A a ) = i I ( j J i A j ) . (2)

We claim that the sets j J i A j i I are mutually disjoint. So consider any i 1 and i 2 in I where i 1 i 2 , and suppose that j J i 1 A j and j J i 2 A j are not disjoint so that there is an x where x j J i 1 A j and x j J i 2 A j . Then there is a j 1 J i 1 where x A j 1 and a j 2 J i 2 where x A j 2 . Now, since J i i I are mutually disjoint and i 1 i 2 , it follows that J i 1 and J i 2 are disjoint. Therefore it has to be that j 1 j 2 (since j 1 J i 1 and j 2 J i 2 ). But then A j 1 and A j 2 are not disjoint (since x is in both) despite the fact that j 1 j 2 , which contradicts the fact that A j j J are mutually disjoint. So it must be that in that j J i 1 A j and j J i 2 A j are disjoint, which proves the result since i 1 and i 2 were arbitrary.

Since j J i A j i I have been shown to be mutually disjoint, it follows by definition that

i I | j J i A j | = | i I ( j J i A j ) | . (3)

Lastly, we also clearly have that A j j J i are mutually disjoint for any i I (since A j j J are mutually disjoint) so that

j J i κ j = | j J i A j | . (4)

Putting this all together, we have

j J κ j = | j J A j | (by ( 1 )) = | i I ( j J i A j ) | (by ( 2 )) = i I | j J i A j | (by ( 3 )) = i I ( j J i κ j ) (by ( 4 ))

as desired. □

User profile picture
2024-07-15 11:42
Comments