Cardinality of power set and binary sequence

Question

Let $A$ be a set and $P(A)$ be the power set of $A$. Define $B(A)$ as the set of all functions $F:A\rightarrow\{0,1\}$. For example, $B(\mathbb{N})$ is the set of all binary sequences. Prove that $P(A)$ has the same cardinality as $B(A)$.

When $A$ is finite, this is easy to prove. I am interested in other cases; for instance when $A$ is countably infinite or uncountable. I am also a bit confused with the definition of $B(A)$. Could anyone help me with this one please?

Answer 1

The bijection is given by defining the function $F_X:A\to\{0,1\}$ with $X\subseteq A$ as: \begin{align} F_X(a)=\begin{cases} 1&\text{if $a\in X$}\\ 0&\text{if $a\notin X$} \end{cases} \end{align}

The things you have to show is that $G:\mathcal P(A)\to B(A)$ with $G(X)=F_X$ is a bijection.

Answer 2

Hint. Consider, for each subset $B$ of $A$, its characteristic function $\chi_B$ defined by $$ \chi_B(x)= \begin{cases}1&\text{if $x \in B$}\\ 0&\text{otherwise}\end{cases} $$