Let and be the sets formed by integers and rational numbers, respectively. For subsets of , define as:
(a) Can be partitioned into three nonempty subsets such that are pairwise disjoint?
(b) Can be partitioned into three nonempty subsets such that are pairwise disjoint?
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Solution
(a) Yes. Here is an example:
(b) No. Suppose can be partitioned into three nonempty subsets such that are pairwise disjoint. Note that for all we have
Indeed since , and likewise , hence . That is, . Similarly, we have , .
The reverse inclusion also holds. Let . By (1) we get , and since , applying (1) again gives
, , .
Furthermore, without loss of generality assume . Then and . Since is disjoint from and respectively, is disjoint from and respectively. Hence is contained in . Since , we obtain . On the other hand, , so we obtain .
Therefore , and
from which we can derive .
In particular, if for any then .
But this conclusion is impossible. Take any ( being a nonempty subset) and let , then
yields a contradiction.
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