MAT425 Real Analysis L3
Prof. Thistleton
Countable and Uncountable Sets (continued)
Definitions
Theorem: Q is countable.
Uncountable Sets and Cantor Diagonalization
Infinite Intersections and Infinite Unions
Let {
} be a collection of sets where A
is some (possible infinite) index set.
Limit Inferior and Limit Superior
Fields
We can try to understand what the real numbers are by first understanding how they behave. Abstract algebra is an area of mathematics that looks at sets and operations like addition or multiplication defined on these sets to see what the properties of these systems are.
For the real numbers, we believe the following statements to be true and have worked with these properties for years. We will consider these to be axioms and define a field to be a set together with operations called addition and multiplication for which the following statements are true. Note that the operations we define on a set might not be the same "good old" addition and multiplication to which you are accustomed.
Is the set of natural numbers, together with the usual addition and multiplication, a field?
Is the set of integers, together with the usual addition and multiplication, a field?
Is the set of rational numbers, together with the usual addition and multiplication, a field?
Is the set of real numbers, together with the usual addition and multiplication, a field?
Is the set of complex numbers a field? How are addition and multiplication defined on the complex numbers?
Show that in a field the additive inverse is unique.
Show that in a field each nonzero element has a unique multiplicative inverse.
Denote the additive inverse of x as -x. Is it true that
? (What do we mean by -1?)
Show that in a field
.
We can define modular arithmetic (clock arithmetic) on the set of
integers
. Define addition on this set as follows:
For any two elements
define
as the remainder of (x + y)/12.
For example,
,
(why?) and
.
Multiplication is defined similarly. To evaluate
we take the appropriate multiple of 12 away from
so
that the remainder is
an element of
. For example,
,
, and
.
Is this a field?
Can we take
with clock arithmetic to generate
a field for any value of n?