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Maliyah Robles

Maliyah Robles

Answered question

2022-07-14

Bijective function from Z + to Z { 1 , 0 , 1 }.
I am supposed to give a bijective function from Z + to Z { 1 , 0 , 1 }, where Z + is the set of positive integers and Z is the set of integers. I don't quite understand how a set with a smaller size can be surjective when mapped to a set with a larger size; wouldn't there be too many elements to map to? Can anyone help explain the problem and potentially provide a function that meets the criteria?

Answer & Explanation

treccinair

treccinair

Beginner2022-07-15Added 18 answers

Step 1
Despite appearances, the sets are the same size.
I am going to assume that the positive integers does not include zero (as opposed to the non-negative integers).
And rather than thinking about how to map the positive integers to the integers excluding { 1 , 0 , 1 }. I am going to map the integers excluding { 1 , 0 , 1 } to the positive integers. And, since it will be a bijection, an inverse map exists.
Map the positive numbers of the set to the even positive integers. 2 maps to 2, 3 maps to 4, n maps to 2 n 1 if n 1
Step 2
And map the negative numbers to the odd positive integers. n = 2 n 3 if n 2.
And, I will leave it to you to work out the inverse map.
bandikizaui

bandikizaui

Beginner2022-07-16Added 7 answers

Step 1
Claim: if α : A B is a bijection and β : B C is a bijection, γ : A C given by γ := β α is a bijection. This allows us to make 'pit stops', i.e. to construct the bijection one map at a time.
To go from Z + Z , one way is send n to ( n + 1 ) / 2 if n is odd (this will map into Z + ) and to send n to ( 2 n ) / 2 if n is even (this will map into Z { 0 }).
Step 2
Now that we're in Z , we can 'delete zero' from the range by sending n to n + 1 if n 0 and otherwise sending n to itself (i.e., leaving it untouched).
I will leave it to you to extend this to deleting the other two points and to come up with a closed-form, if you wish.

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