M8dude

M8dude t1_j2bv9x8 wrote

yeah, there's plenty logic in your argument, there are many different so-called 'measures' to quantify sets of numbers, example the 'distance measure' (i think) of an interval [a, b] is just denoted by b - a.

This is makes the sets have different measure (and more useful ones than just "infinite"), even though they have the same number of numbers.

the measure we would have used before is called the 'counting measure', telling us we'd have to count to infinity for both sets, but that doesn't mean they have the same number of elements (see cantor's second diagonal argument, or yours with the 15), so it has to be shown using a so-called 'bijective function' (our correspondence function), which thank god is pretty easy to construct for any two intervals.

But anyway, good thinking and yep you are right about the example set including [1, 3] and 15, for the counting measure.

2

M8dude t1_j299cw4 wrote

you're not dumb, it's just counterintuitive.

any number x between 0 and infinity can be paired with a unique number 1/(1+x), which is between 0 and 1.

any number y between 0 and 1 can be paired with a unique number (1/y)-1, which is between 0 and infinity.

there are no exceptions, so none of the two sets of numbers have 'more' numbers in them.

Talking about the 'size' of these sets of numbers is a whole different story.

2

M8dude t1_j2927ms wrote

Look up the definition of 'Number'.

here, i'll help you:

> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number

and if that's too difficult, here's the relevant part:

> In mathematics, the notion of a number has been extended over the centuries to include zero (0), negative numbers, rational numbers such as one half ...

1