Definition:Cardinality

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[edit] Definition

Two sets (either finite or infinite) which are equivalent are said to have the same cardinality.

The cardinality of a set $S$ is written $\left|{S}\right|$ .

If $S$ is finite, then:

$\left|{S}\right| \ \stackrel {\mathbf {def}} {=\!=} \ S \sim \N_n$

That is, if $S$ is finite, $\left|{S}\right|$ is the number of elements in $S$ .

By Set Equivalence an Equivalence Relation, to show that $\left|{S}\right| = n$ , it is sufficient to show that it is equivalent to a set already known to have $n$ elements.

Also note that from the definition of finite:

$\exists n \in \N: \left|{S}\right| = n \iff S$ is finite.

The cardinality of an infinite set is often denoted by an aleph number ( $\aleph_0 , \aleph_1 , \ldots$ ) or a beth number ( $\beth_0 , \beth_1 , \ldots$ ).

[edit] Notational Variants

Some authors prefer the term order instead of cardinality.

Other authors say that two sets that are equivalent have the same power. Compare equipotent as mentioned in the definition of set equivalence.

Some just cut through all the complicated language and call it the size.

Some sources use $\# \left({S}\right)$ (or a variant) to denote set cardinality. This notation has its advantages in certain contexts.