Then inclusion map is not surjective.

581 Views Asked by At

Let $B$ be a subset of a set $A$. Let $f:B\rightarrow A, b\mapsto b$ be the inclusion map. I want to show $f$ is not surjective. And my attempt is:

Assume that $f:B\rightarrow A$ is surjective. Let $x_0\in A-B$. Then $f(x_1)=x_0$ for some $x_1\in B$. Thus $x_0=x_1\in B$, which is contradicting to the fact that $x_0\in A-B$. Hence, $f:B\rightarrow A$ is not surjective.

But my professor said my proof is wrong and I didn't understand the definition of surjectivity and its negation. Can anyone help me? Thank you in advance!

1

There are 1 best solutions below

1
On BEST ANSWER

There doesn't appear to be any deep problem with your proof, except that you seem to be assuming that $B$ is a proper subset of $A$ rather than just a subset. Otherwise you have no reason to think $A\setminus B$ contains any $x_0$ you can choose.

But that is at most a misunderstanding of "subset", not one about surjectivity and/or its negation.

And taking your goal literally, it is not necessarily true: $A=B=\{1,2,3\}$ is a counterexample.