In Kunen's book, Set Theory,chapter I.7, he said: $1+\omega=\omega \neq \omega+1$. I want to know why $\omega \neq \omega+1$.
I want to know why $\omega \neq \omega+1$.
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7As an ordered set, $\omega +1$ has a largest element, while $\omega$ doesn't. – 2012-01-12
4 Answers
There is an easy way to see this. You need to apply the definition of ordinal addition:
$\omega + 1 = \omega \times \{0\} \cup \{1\} \times \{1\} = \{0, 1, 2, \dots 1^\prime\}$
So $\omega + 1$ has an element at the end that is not a successor of anything while $\omega$ does not.
On the other hand, $1 + \omega = \{1\} \times \{0\} \cup \omega \times \{1\} = \{1 ^\prime, 0, 1, 2, \dots\} \cong \omega$
so you see that addition doesn't commute.
There is some more information about this here on Wikipedia. Hope this helps.
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1@AsafKaragila: Yes, but how do you justify the presence of $1^\prime$ in both sets? Where do you place it? – 2012-01-15
I find pictures to help. The idea here is that $\omega$ is a limit ordinal and tacking on the ordinal $1$ after it is fundamentally different:
The picture for $\omega$ has a curved edge which indicates that it is a limit ordinal opposed to being a successor ordinal. When we tack on $1$ to the right of $\omega$ we have this ordinal $\omega+1$ that contains a limit ordinal which is not something that occurs in $\omega$. This means that $\omega$ and $\omega+1$ can't be isomorphic.
Can you use see why $1+\omega$ and $\omega+1$ aren't equal? Do you see why $1+\omega = \omega$?
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0Now it is very clear for me. Thanks tomcuchta. – 2012-01-12
$\omega + 1$ has a limit point (i.e. $\omega$ — using the von Neumann definition $\omega + 1 = \omega \cup \lbrace\omega\rbrace$) in the order topology while $\omega$ is discrete in the order topology.
Because the elements of $\omega$ are all finite, whereas $\omega + 1$ has one infinite element.