If A is a finite set having n elements, prove that A has exactly
2n distinct subsets
Apply Induction on n.
If , then as exactly two subsets namely and . So claim is true for .
Induction hypothesis: For any set having exactly elements, the
number of subsets is . Let now be a set with . Any subset of is either contained in or . By induction hypothesis, there are exactly subsets of contained . Any other subset is of the form. where is subset of . Their number is therefore equal to the number of subsets of , i. e. . Then the number of all subsets of is .
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