Elementary Set Theory – Understanding the Sum of Ordinals

elementary-set-theoryordinals

I'm having a hard time with the functions defined by transfinite induction, in particular I have the sum of two ordinals defined as follows:
\begin{align}\alpha+0&=\alpha \\
\alpha+s(\beta)&=s(\alpha+\beta)\\
\alpha+\beta&=\sup_{\gamma<\beta}(\alpha+\gamma)\quad \mbox{(if $\beta$ is a limit ordinal)} \end{align}

I've noticed that if $\alpha<\omega$ then $\alpha + \omega =\omega$ and it seems to me that if I replace $\omega$ by any other countable limit ordinal that assertion still holds, is this right? And, can it be generalized to any limit ordinal?

I feel I'm still not able to grasp the intuition behind it.

Best Answer

Edit: There's an amusing generalization of all this at the bottom.

An ordinal determines an ordering. The ordering corresponding to the sum of two ordinals is "first an ordering like this one, followed by an ordering like that one".

So for example the ordinal $3$ corresponds to three things in a row: $xxx$ .

And $\omega$ corresponds to an infinite sequence: $xxxxxx\dots$ .

If you take three things in a row and follow them by an infinite sequence you get an infinite sequence: $$xxx,xxx\dots = xxx\dots$$So $3+\omega=\omega$.

If $n<\omega$ then $n+\alpha=\alpha$ for any infinite ordinal $\alpha$, nothing to do with whether it's a limit ordinal. Because $\alpha$ starts with an infinite sequence, then perhaps has more added on - that sequence eats the $n$, as in the example $3+\omega=\omega$ above.


Amusing Generalization. For $n<\omega$ define $\alpha n=\alpha+\dots+\alpha$. Define $\alpha\omega=\bigcup_{n<\omega}\alpha n.$

Theorem Suppose $\alpha$ and $\beta$ are ordinals. We have $\alpha+\beta=\beta$ if and only if $\alpha+\beta$ is obviously equal to $\beta$.

Or a little more explicitly,

Theorem Given two ordinals $\alpha$ and $\beta$, we have $\alpha+\beta=\beta$ if and only if $\beta\ge\alpha\omega$.

Proof: If $\alpha+\beta=\beta$ then $\alpha n+\beta=\beta$, and hence $\beta\ge\alpha n$, for every $n<\omega$. Hence $\beta\ge\alpha\omega$.

Otoh if $\beta\ge\alpha\omega$ then $\beta=\alpha\omega+\gamma$, hence $\alpha+\beta=\beta$.

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