Is the set of all rational sequences with constant tail countable

elementary-set-theory

I am unable to prove or disprove that the set of all rational sequences with constant tail is countable. Precisely the set in question is

\begin{equation}
\{(x_n)_{n\ge1}: x_n \in \mathbb{Q}, \exists N \in \mathbb{N}, \, c \in \mathbb{Q} : \forall n > N : x_n = c\}
\end{equation}

What about when the tail is the same for all sequences? That is

\begin{equation}
\{(x_n)_{n\ge1}: x_n \in \mathbb{Q}, \exists N \in \mathbb{N} : \forall n > N : x_n = 0\}
\end{equation}

Best Answer

Note that since $\mathbb Q$ is countable we may rewrite the question in terms of sequences over $\mathbb N$ and additionally it is then easy to give a bijection between the first set you mention and the set $\mathbb{N}^\ast$ of finite tuples over $\mathbb N$ by simply mapping a sequence $(x_1, ..., x_N, c, ...)$ to the tuple $(x_1, ..., x_N, c)$.

Now, to show that $\mathbb N^\ast$ is countable one can simply note that it is the countable union of countable sets.