# Countably infinite product of countably infinite sets has cardinality of the continuum

How to prove that the countably infinite product of countably infinite sets has cardinality of the continuum?

I know that it is uncountable thus the only thing to prove is the existence of a one-one function from the set $\prod_{n \in \mathbb{N}}{\mathbb{N}}$ to $\mathbb{R}$ .

Thanks

• It would be enough to prove that the cardinality of the product is not greater than the cardinality of $\mathbb R$, assuming the continuum hypothesis is true. – Peter Dec 1 '15 at 19:02
• @Peter Not, it wouldn't. The continuum hypothesis plays no role here. – Andrés E. Caicedo Dec 1 '15 at 19:16
• A standard approach is to note that you can identify the members of $\prod_n\mathbb N$ with the irrational numbers (in $(0,1)$, say), for instance, via continued fractions. This shows the result, since it is easy to see that $\mathbb R$ has the same size as the set of irrationals. – Andrés E. Caicedo Dec 1 '15 at 19:19
• Please explain why the proof that the cardinality of the product is not greater than the cardinality of $\mathbb R$ would not be enough ? – Peter Dec 1 '15 at 19:22
• @Peter I think he is talking about assuming the CH. Your proof would not show the result holds in normal set theory, which is probably what OP needs to show. – Trevor Norton Dec 1 '15 at 19:38

• $\mathbb{N}^\mathbb{N}$ has size at least that of $\mathbb{R}$. To each real in $(0, 1)$, we can associate an infinite string of zeroes and ones - its binary expansion. This (ignoring the expansions which are eventually all "$1$"s) yields an injection from $(0, 1)$ into $\mathbb{N}^\mathbb{N}$. Note that it is not enough to merely observe that $\mathbb{N}^\mathbb{N}$ is uncountable - it is consistent that there are uncountable sets of size strictly less than that of $\mathbb{R}$.
• $\mathbb{N}^\mathbb{N}$ injects into $\mathbb{R}$. This is slightly more complicated. If you understand why $\mathbb{N}^\mathbb{N}$ and $2^\mathbb{N}$ have the same cardinality, it's enough to observe that the map defined above had range $2^\mathbb{N}$; if you haven't seen that yet, then here's a straightforward (if somewhat unnatural) injection: given $\alpha=(a_i)_{i\in\mathbb{N}}\in\mathbb{N}^\mathbb{N}$, let $f(\alpha)$ be the real with binary expansion $$0.0...010...010...01...$$ where the $i$th block of zeroes has length $a_i+1$.