Let a,b,c be cardinalities.
Prove or disprove:
If a≤b then a+c≤b+c
I realize that a≤b means that there's a bijection between A and B. But I don't really know what to do with the addition in the inequality.
Can I simply separate this into cases where one or two cardinalities are infinite while the others aren't and then just solve from there like numbers or known cardinalities like ℵ0 ?
Thanks.
Answer
I will prove something stronger -
For cardinals a,b,c and d, if a≤c and b≤d, then a+b≤c+d.
Proof: Let A,B,C and D be sets with the cardinals a,b,c and d respectively, and A∩B=C∩D=∅.
If a≤c and b≤d, then there exists injective functions f:A→C and g:B→D. By defining new function h:A∪B→C∪D with
h(x)={f(x)x∈Ag(x)x∈B
That h(x) is well defined(why?) and injective one(why?). From that, we get
|A∪B|≤|C∪D|
i.e. a+b≤c+d.
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