The advantage of defining an ordered pair $(a, b)$ as $\{\{a\}, \{a, b\}\}$

definitionelementary-set-theory

I've been studying set theory and have come across ordered pairs being described as a sets. Why is it beneficial to define the ordered pair $(a, b)$ as the set $\{\{a\}, \{a, b\}\}$? It seems to me that there are much simpler ways to define an ordered pair.

So we can tell the left element from the right, we could define $(a, b)$ as $\{a, a, b\}$. We can say that if an element is repeated twice it is the first element of the pair and otherwise it is second. With this definition we are able to decode the set into an ordered pair just like the first, so why choose the more complicated $\{\{a\}, \{a, b\}\}$?

Best Answer

$\{a, a, b\} = \{a, b\}$, so your definition doesn't work.

In particular, remember that two sets are equal whenever they have the same elements. That is, given sets $x$ and $y$, if for all $z$, $z \in x$ iff $z \in y$, then $x = y$.

In this case, we see that $z \in \{a, a, b\}$ iff ($z = a$ or $z = a$ or $z = b$) iff ($z = a$ or $z = b$) iff $z \in \{a, b\}$. So $\{a, a, b\} = \{a, b\}$.

The definition $(a, b) := \{\{a\}, \{a, b\}\}$ is chosen precisely because under this definition, $(a, b) = (c, d)$ iff ($a = c$ and $b = d$). This is the only property of ordered pairs that matters.

By contrast, your definition of ordered pairs doesn't work because under it, $(0, 1) = \{0, 0, 1\} = \{0, 1\} = \{1, 0\} = (1, 0)$. But clearly $1 \neq 0$.

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