I am trying to show that if two sets A,B have n and m distinct elements respectively then A×B has nm elements. I assumed that there are bijections f:{1,...,n}→A,k↦ak and g:{1,...,m}→B,k↦bk.
Which I wanted to use to define a bijection F:A×B→{1,...,mn} but no matter how I think about it, I can't construct F that is both surjective and injective. My try F that maps (ak,bj) to kj fails.
Please help. Is it possible to define F that it is bijective?
Answer
Recall that mn=n+n+⋯+n⏟m times.
So you can count from 1 to mn like this (I paired up every n numbers): (1,…,n),(n+1,…,2n),…,((m−1)n+1,…,nm)
Can you now see your bijection?
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