Question #350775

If A is a finite set having n elements, prove that A has exactly

2n distinct subsets


1
Expert's answer
2022-06-20T02:40:30-0400

Apply Induction on n.

If A=1|A|=1, then AA as exactly two subsets namely ϕ\phi and AA. So claim is true for n=1n=1.

Induction hypothesis: For any set having exactly n1n-1 elements, the

number of subsets is 2n12^{n-1}. Let now A={a1,,an}A=\{a_1,\dots,a_n\} be a set with A=n|A|=n. Any subset XX of AA is either contained in B={a1,,an1}B=\{a_1,\dots,a_{n-1}\} or anXa_n\in X. By induction hypothesis, there are exactly 2n12^{n-1} subsets of AA contained BB. Any other subset XX is of the form. X={a}YX=\{a\}\cup Y where YY is subset of BB. Their number is therefore equal to the number of subsets of BB, i. e. 2n12^{n-1}. Then the number of all subsets of AA is 2n1+2n1=2n2^{n-1}+2^{n-1}=2^n.


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