Friday 15 May 2015

elementary set theory - Cardinality of $mathbb{R}$ and $mathbb{R}^2$

I am working on this exercise for an introductory Real Analysis course:





Show that |$\mathbb{R}$| = |$\mathbb{R}^2$|.




I know that $\mathbb{R}$ is uncountable. I also know that two sets $A$ and $B$ have the same cardinality if there is a bijection from $A$ onto $B$. So if I show that there exists a bijection from $\mathbb{R}$ onto $\mathbb{R}^2$ then I beleive that shows that |$\mathbb{R}$| = |$\mathbb{R}^2$|.



Let $x_i \in \mathbb{R}$, where each $x_i$ is expressed as an infinite decimal, written as $x_i = x_{i0}.x_{i1}x_{i2}x_{i3}...,$. Each $x_{i0}$ is an integer, and $x_{ik} \in \left \{ 0,1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 \right \}$. Then, let



$$f(x_i)=(x_{i0}.x_{i1}x_{i3}x_{i5}... ,x_{i0}.x_{i2}x_{i4}x_{i6}...)$$




What should I do to show that $f: \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}^2$ is an injective function? Any suggestions or help with the question would be appreciated.

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