Prove:

n0, if the cardinality of a set is n, then the set has 2n subsets.

Proof by induction.
Basis step:
P(0) is true, because the set with cardinality 0 (the empty set) has 1 subset (itself)
and 20 = 1.

Inductive step:
Prove that if for some natural number n a set with cardinality n has 2n subsets, then
a set with cardinality n+1 has 2n+1 subsets.

Proof
Assume that for some natural number n, a set with cardinality n has 2n subsets.
Let T be a set such that |T| = n+1.
Enumerate the elements of T: T = {e1,e2 ,...en ,en +1} .

Let S = {e1,e2 ,...en }

Then |S|=n, so S has 2n subsets.

Note that T = S {en +1} , so every subset of S is also a subset of T.

Any subset of T either contains the element en +1, or it doesnt.
If a subset of T doesnt contain en +1, then it is also a subset of S, and there are 2n of

those subsets.
On the other hand, if a subset of T contains the element en +1, then it is formed by

including en +1 in one of the 2n subsets of S.

We have shown that T has 2n subsets containing en +1, and another 2n subsets not

containing en +1, so the total number of subsets of T is

2n + 2n = (2) 2n = 2n+1