[Math] Prove that set of all lines in the plane is uncountable.

elementary-set-theoryproof-writing

Let $L$ be the set of all lines in the plane. Prove that $L$ is uncountable, but only countably many of the lines in $L$ contain more than one rational point.

Attempt: Well, I was trying to define $L$ using linear combinations of points since a line is a linear combo of two points. So, I wanted to define $L=\{ax+yb:x+y+z=k,k∈Z_+\}$. But, this does not seem right. Anyway, once I define $L$ I would try to find a function from $L$ to some uncountable set D that is onto or a function from D to L that is 1-1. Help appreciated thank you.

Best Answer

You can List all lines in the plane this way:

Use the fact that a line is described uniquely once you know its slope, and one of its intercepts with the axes. The slope is indexed by the Reals, and so is the intercept, say the x-intercept. So we count all the possible pairs ( slope, x-intercept), and show it is equal to $|\mathbb R|$

1) Consider all lines thru the origin $(0,0)$. These are described uniquely by their slope, and there are $|\mathbb R|$ of them, since the slope is parametrized by the Reals.

2) From 1) , we can cover all other cases of lines not going thru $(0,0)$ , by considering all possible ( say x-) intercepts of a line thru any point, with fixed slope$m$. For every line in 1), there are $\mathbb R$ lines not going thru the origin, but with the same slope. This means there are $|\mathbb R|\times |\mathbb R|=|\mathbb R|$ total lines in the plane.

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