Proofs Of The Cantor Bernstein Theorem

This book offers an excursion through the developmental area of research mathematics. It presents some 40 papers, published between the 1870s and the 1970s, on proofs of the Cantor-Bernstein theorem and the related Bernstein division theorem. While the emphasis is placed on providing accurate proofs, similar to the originals, the discussion is broadened to include aspects that pertain to the methodology of the development of mathematics and to the philosophy of mathematics. Works of prominent mathematicians and logicians are reviewed, including Cantor, Dedekind, Schröder, Bernstein, Borel, Zermelo, Poincaré, Russell, Peano, the Königs, Hausdorff, Sierpinski, Tarski, Banach, Brouwer and several others mainly of the Polish and the Dutch schools. In its attempt to present a diachronic narrative of one mathematical topic, the book resembles Lakatos’ celebrated book Proofs and Refutations. Indeed, some of the observations made by Lakatos are corroborated herein. The analogy between the two books is clearly anything but superficial, as the present book also offers new theoretical insights into the methodology of the development of mathematics (proof-processing), with implications for the historiography of mathematics.

Many students have trouble the first time they take a mathematics course in which proofs play a significant role. This new edition of Velleman's successful text will prepare students to make the transition from solving problems to proving theorems by teaching them the techniques needed to read and write proofs. The book begins with the basic concepts of logic and set theory, to familiarize students with the language of mathematics and how it is interpreted. These concepts are used as the basis for a step-by-step breakdown of the most important techniques used in constructing proofs. The author shows how complex proofs are built up from these smaller steps, using detailed 'scratch work' sections to expose the machinery of proofs about the natural numbers, relations, functions, and infinite sets. To give students the opportunity to construct their own proofs, this new edition contains over 200 new exercises, selected solutions, and an introduction to Proof Designer software. No background beyond standard high school mathematics is assumed. This book will be useful to anyone interested in logic and proofs: computer scientists, philosophers, linguists, and of course mathematicians.

According to the great mathematician Paul Erdös, God maintains perfect mathematical proofs in The Book. This book presents the authors candidates for such "perfect proofs," those which contain brilliant ideas, clever connections, and wonderful observations, bringing new insight and surprising perspectives to problems from number theory, geometry, analysis, combinatorics, and graph theory. As a result, this book will be fun reading for anyone with an interest in mathematics.

By its nature, set theory does not depend on any previous mathematical knowl edge. Hence, an individual wanting to read this book can best find out if he is ready to do so by trying to read the first ten or twenty pages of Chapter 1. As a textbook, the book can serve for a course at the junior or senior level. If a course covers only some of the chapters, the author hopes that the student will read the rest himself in the next year or two. Set theory has always been a sub ject which people find pleasant to study at least partly by themselves. Chapters 1-7, or perhaps 1-8, present the core of the subject. (Chapter 8 is a short, easy discussion of the axiom of regularity). Even a hurried course should try to cover most of this core (of which more is said below). Chapter 9 presents the logic needed for a fully axiomatic set th~ory and especially for independence or consistency results. Chapter 10 gives von Neumann's proof of the relative consistency of the regularity axiom and three similar related results. Von Neumann's 'inner model' proof is easy to grasp and yet it prepares one for the famous and more difficult work of GOdel and Cohen, which are the main topics of any book or course in set theory at the next level.

The main notions of set theory (cardinals, ordinals, transfinite induction) are fundamental to all mathematicians, not only to those who specialize in mathematical logic or set-theoretic topology. Basic set theory is generally given a brief overview in courses on analysis, algebra, or topology, even though it is sufficiently important, interesting, and simple to merit its own leisurely treatment. This book provides just that: a leisurely exposition for a diversified audience. It is suitable for a broad range of readers, from undergraduate students to professional mathematicians who want to finally find out what transfinite induction is and why it is always replaced by Zorn's Lemma. The text introduces all main subjects of ``naive'' (nonaxiomatic) set theory: functions, cardinalities, ordered and well-ordered sets, transfinite induction and its applications, ordinals, and operations on ordinals. Included are discussions and proofs of the Cantor-Bernstein Theorem, Cantor's diagonal method, Zorn's Lemma, Zermelo's Theorem, and Hamel bases. With over 150 problems, the book is a complete and accessible introduction to the subject.

The present text resulted from lectures given by the authors at the Rijks Universiteit at Utrecht. These lectures were part of a series on 'History of Contemporary Mathematics'. The need for such an enterprise was generally felt, since the curriculum at many universities is designed to suit an efficient treatment of advanced subjects rather than to reflect the development of notions and techniques. As it is very likely that this trend will continue, we decided to offer lectures of a less technical nature to provide students and interested listeners with a survey of the history of topics in our present-day mathematics. We consider it very useful for a mathematician to have an acquaintance with the history of the development of his subject, especially in the nineteenth century where the germs of many of modern disciplines can be found. Our attention has therefore been mainly directed to relatively young developments. In the lectures we tried to stay clear of both oversimplification and extreme technicality. The result is a text, that should not cause difficulties to a reader with a working knowledge of mathematics. The developments sketched in this book are fundamental for many areas in mathematics and the notions considered are crucial almost everywhere. The book may be most useful, in particular, for those teaching mathematics.

This book is an introduction to the language and standard proof methods of mathematics. It is a bridge from the computational courses (such as calculus or differential equations) that students typically encounter in their first year of college to a more abstract outlook. It lays a foundation for more theoretical courses such as topology, analysis and abstract algebra. Although it may be more meaningful to the student who has had some calculus, there is really no prerequisite other than a measure of mathematical maturity.