Thursday, October 31, 2019

real analysis - How to define a bijection between $(0,1)$ and $(0,1]$?




How to define a bijection between $(0,1)$ and $(0,1]$? Or any other open and closed intervals?



If the intervals are both open like $(-1,2)\text{ and }(-5,4)$ I do a cheap trick (don't know if that's how you're supposed to do it): I make a function $f : (-1, 2)\rightarrow (-5, 4)$ of the form $f(x)=mx+b$ by \begin{align*} -5 = f(-1) &= m(-1)+b \\ 4 = f(2) &= m(2) + b \end{align*} Solving for $m$ and $b$ I find $m=3\text{ and }b=-2$ so then $f(x)=3x-2.$


Then I show that $f$ is a bijection by showing that it is injective and surjective.


Answer



Choose an infinite sequence $(x_n)_{n\geqslant1}$ of distinct elements of $(0,1)$. Let $X=\{x_n\mid n\geqslant1\}$, hence $X\subset(0,1)$. Let $x_0=1$. Define $f(x_n)=x_{n+1}$ for every $n\geqslant0$ and $f(x)=x$ for every $x$ in $(0,1)\setminus X$. Then $f$ is defined on $(0,1]$ and the map $f:(0,1]\to(0,1)$ is bijective.


To sum up, one extracts a copy of $\mathbb N$ from $(0,1)$ and one uses the fact that the map $n\mapsto n+1$ is a bijection between $\mathbb N\cup\{0\}$ and $\mathbb N$.


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