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Exercise 3.3.2 (Composition preserves injectivity/surjectivity)

Let f : X → Y and g : Y → Z be functions. Show that if f and g are both injective, then so is g ∘ f; similarly, show that if f and g are both surjective, then so is g ∘ f.

Answers

0.0.1 Injection

Let x,x′∈ X and y,y′∈ Y such that x≠x′ and f(x) = y and f(x′) = y′. Since f is injective, y≠y′ and since g is injective g(y)≠g(y′). Therefore (g ∘ f)(x)≠(g ∘ f)(x′) and so g ∘ f : X → Z is injective.

0.0.2 Surjection

Suppose g ∘ f is not surjective. Then there exists some z ∈ Z such that z∉(g ∘ f)(X). Since g is surjective, there is some y ∈ Y for which g(y) = z. And similarly, since f is surjective, there is some x ∈ X such that f(x) = y. This implies (g ∘ f)(x) = z which contradicts the claim that z∉(g ∘ f)(X).

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2022-02-20 17:56
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Proof.

1.
(g ∘ f is injective) By Definition 3.3.14, to show that g ∘ f is injective, we have to demonstrate that g ∘ f(x1)≠g ∘ f(x2) for any x1≠x2. Since g and f are both injective, we have f(x1)≠f(x2) for all x1≠x2. Therefore, we have g(f(x1))≠g(f(x2)), and thus, g ∘ f(x1)≠g ∘ f(x2) for any x1 and x2. Thus, we can conclude that g ∘ f is injective.
2.
(g ∘ f is surjective) Since f : X → Y and g : Y → Z, we have g ∘ f : X → Z. By Definition 3.3.17, we have to show that for every z ∈ Z there exists x ∈ X such that (g ∘ f)(x) = z.
Figure 1: The idea of the proof is to fix z and then go to the previous set since surjectivity guarantees that we can always go backwards at any point in the range.

Let z ∈ Z be arbitrary. Since g is surjective we have y ∈ Y such that g(y) = z. Since f is surjective, for that particular y we have x ∈ X such that f(x) = y. In other words, we have found a x ∈ X such that g(f(x)) = g(y) = z, as desired.

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2022-09-25 15:20
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