--- > [!definition]+ Definition. ([[power set]]) > The **power set** of a set $S$, denoted $\mathcal{P}(S)$ or $2^{S}$ is the set of all subsets of $S$, including [[the empty set]] and $S$ itself. ^definition > [!basicproperties]+ > - If $S$ is finite then $|\mathcal{P}(S)|=2^{|S|}$. > - The power set of a [[countably infinite]] set is [[uncountably infinite]]. ^properties > [!proof]+ > - For each subset $A \subset S$, define an indicator function $\mathbb{1}_{A}: S \to \{ 0,1 \}$ to be given by $\mathbb{1}_{A}(s)=\begin{cases}1 & s \in A; \\ 0 & \text{else}.\end{cases}$ Noting that every function $f:S \to \{ 0,1 \}$ is the indicator for a unique $A \subset S$ (namely, the set $\{ s \in S: f(s)=1 \}$), we see that the task of counting how many subset of $S$ exist amounts to counting how many functions from $S$ to $\{ 0,1 \}$ exist. This is $2^{|S|}$, by the [[multiplication principle]]. ^proof --- #### References > [!backlink]- > ```dataview TABLE rows.file.link as "Further Reading" FROM [[]] FLATTEN file.tags GROUP BY file.tags as Tag > [!frontlink]- > ```dataview TABLE rows.file.link as "Further Reading" FROM outgoing([[]]) FLATTEN file.tags GROUP BY file.tags as Tag #reformatrevisebatch02