78 NUMBER SYSTEM OF MATHEMATICS I II ]

the same type, such as the totality of integers, or of real numbers, or of

triangles in a plane. For this reason it is necessary to analyze the
mathematical innite in a precise way. The modern theory of sets,
created by Georg Cantor and his school at the end of the nineteenth
century, has met this challenge with striking success. Cantors theory
of sets has penetrated and strongly influenced many elds of mathe
matics, and has become of basic importance in the study of the logical
and philosophical foundations of mathematics. The point of departure
is the general concept of a set or aggregate. By this is meant any collection of objects dened by some rule which species exactly which objects belong to the given collection. As examples We may consider the
set of all positive integers, the set of all periodic decimals, the set of
all real numbers, or the set of all straight lines in threedimensional space.
For comparing the magnitude of two different sets the basic notion

is that of equivalence. If the elements in two sets A and B may be

paired with each other in such a way that to each element of A there
corresponds one and only one element of B and to each element of B
corresponds one and only one element of A, then the correspondence
is said to be biumque and A and B are said to be equivalent. The notion
of equivalence for nite sets coincides with the ordinary notion of
equality of number, since two nite sets have the same number of
elements

if and only if the elements of the two sets can be put into biunique
correspondence. This is in fact the very idea of counting, for when we
count a nite set of objects, we simply establish a biunique correspondence between these objects and a set of number symbols 1, 2, 3, - - - , n.

It is not always necessary to count the objects in two nite sets to establish
their equivalence. For example, we can assert without counting that any
nite

set of circles of radius 1 is equivalent to the set of their centers.

Cantors idea was to extend the concept of equivalence to innite sets

in order to dene an arithmetic of innities. The set of all real
numbers and the set of all points on a straight line are equivalent, Since
the choice of an origin and a unit allows us to associate in a biunique
manner with every point P of the line a denite real number a; as its
coordinate:

P H 9:.

The even integers form a proper subset of the Set of all integers! and
the integers form a proper subset of the set of all rational numbers. (By
the phrase proper subset of a set S, we mean a set 8 consisting of some,
but not all, of the objects in S.) Clearly, if a set is nite, i.e. if it contains