ISL 9

Georg Cantor and Infinity (http://richbeveridge.wordpress.com/2009/02/11/georg-cantor-and-

infinity/)
Georg Cantor was an important mathematician who lived during the late 19th century. He devised a
method for comparing different sizes of infinite quantities and demonstrated that there were differnet
sizes of infinite sets.
The foundation of Cantors ideas is the concept of a one-to-one correspondence. This is a concept
which is deeply rooted in the human psyche, as is shown by the fact that the word digit meaning
number also means finger. This one-to-one correspondence between enumerating objects by
comparing them to the fingers and/or toes of the human body is the presumed origin of our base ten
number system.
What Cantor did was to compare infinite sets by establishing a one-to-one correspondence bewteen
the elements of the two sets. If it was possible to establish a one-to-one correspondence, then Cantor
concluded that the sets were the same size. In 1873, Cantor published a paper showing that the
rational numbers (which includes all fractions and whole numbers) is actually the same size as the
counting numbers (1, 2, 3, and so on). Any set that is the same size as the counting numbers is
called countable.
Another example of this is the set of even numbers. The set of even numbers is the same size as the
set of counting numbers. It might seem as though there would be fewer even numbers, because the
set of counting numbers includes all the odds, but the set of even numbers doesnt!
But, you can create a one-to-one correspondence between the coutning numbers and the even
numbers.
1 (in the counting numbers) matches up with 2 (in the even numbers)
2 (in the counting numbers) matches up with 4 (in the even numbers)
3 matches up with 6
4 matches up with 8 and so on. Any counting number N will match up with 2N in the set of even
numbers.
For every counting number, there is a corresponding even number therefore the sets are the same
size. Cantor called this size aleph null, the smallest infinite size. Cantor showed that the Real
Numbers, represented by the number line and including all rational and irrational numbers, are NOT
countable in fact, there are more Real Numbers than Counting Numbers. Cantors famous Diagonal
Proof is actually fairly simplistic.
Most mathematicians of the late 19th century hated Cantors ideas, and he didnt receive much
support intellectually while he was struggling with his work. Cantor often became depressed toward
the end of his life and spent time in and out of sanitariums, eventually dying in 1918. By this time,
however, many younger mathematicians looked up to Cantor and relied heavily on his work and ideas.
Today Cantor is regarded as one of the most important mathematicians to ever work. His ideas
regarding infinity are deeply philosophical and have had a profound impact on mathematics, science
and philosophy.

Sinopsis:
Cantor was the first mathematician to put a firm logical foundation for the term "infinity," and described a way to

do arithmetic with infinite quantities useful to mathematics. He stated that a collection is infinite, if some of its
parts are as big as the whole. Cantor also was able to demonstrate that there are different sizes of infinity.

Cantor revolutionized the foundation of mathematics with set theory.

One to One Correspondence: He showed that you could make a one-to-one correspondence between
the natural numbers
(1, 2, 3, 4, ... } and the integers (..., -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3 ...}

Continuum Hypothesis: The cardinality of the set of all subsets of any set is strictly greater than the
cardinality of the set

For any set A, cardinality(powerset(A))>carinality(A)

Transfinite numbers

Used to count the number of integers and the number of real numbers

Cantor's Theorem: The cardinality of the set of all subsets of any set is strictly greater than the
cardinality of the set; i.e., for any set A, cardinality (powerset(A)) > cardinality(A).
Proof:
To prove the theorem we must show that there is a one-to-one correspondence between A and a subset of powerset
(A) but notvice versa. The function f:Apowerset(A) defined by f(a)={a} is one-to-one into powerset(A). Thus
cardinality (A) < powerset (A).
To prove that the cardinality of powerset(A) is not equal to the cardinality of A let us assume there were a one-to-one
onto mapping between A and powerset(A), say g:Apowerset(A). There are some elements of A which map into
subsets of A of which they are a member and there are some which map into a subset which they are not a member
of. Let N be the set of elements of A that do not map into a subset they are member of; i.e., N = {x (belongs to) A
and x (does not belong to) g(x)}. Since N is a subset of A and g is one-to-one onto there must be an element z such
that N=g (z). This sets up a contradiction. If z belongs to N it cannot belong to N. If it does not belong to N then it
must belong to N. Therefore the assumption of the existence of a one-to-one onto function between A and
powerset(A) leads to a contradiction and therefore must be false. Thus cardinality (powerset(A)) is strictly less than
cardinality(A).

http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/cantorth.htm

ISL 10

http://mte3101.blogspot.com/2012/04/minggu-13-nombor-nisbah.html

ISL 13
Complex Conjugate
The complex conjugate of a + bi is a bi, and similarly the complex conjugate of a bi is a + bi. This
consists of changing the sign of the imaginary part of a complex number. The real part is left
unchanged.
Complex conjugates are indicated using a horizontal line over the number or variable. For
example,

Note: Complex conjugates are similar to, but not the same as, conjugates.

Expression Complex
Conjugate
5 2i

5 + 2i

4i + 1

4i + 1

5i

5i

12

12

http://www.mathwords.com/c/complex_conjugate.htm

ISL 14

(http://algebra.nipissingu.ca/tutorials/complex_numbers.html)

Polar Form
Along with being able to be represented as a point (a,b) on a graph, a complex number z = a+bi can also be
represented in polar form as written below:

Note: The Arg(z) is the angle

primary angle. Adding

, and that this angle is only unique between

which is called the

Example:
Using the principle argument, write the following complex number in its polar coordinates.

Multiplication and division can be given geometric interpretations and new insight when looking at polar forms:
Let

and

be complex numbers.

We can see from this that in order to multiply two complex numbers we must multiply the length or absolute values
together and add the arguments.

In the case of division, it is similarly shown that:

by using the subtration rule of sine and cosine, as apose to multipling the
lengths we divide and as apose to adding the arguments, we subtract.

Example: