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Section 6: Problem 5 Solution

Working problems is a crucial part of learning mathematics. No one can learn topology merely by poring over the definitions, theorems, and examples that are worked out in the text. One must work part of it out for oneself. To provide that opportunity is the purpose of the exercises.
James R. Munkres
If is finite, does it follow that and are finite?
If it was given that both sets and are nonempty, then the answer would be yes. Indeed, if we assume that is finite, then there is an injective function from to for some (Corollary 6.7). And if is nonempty, then for a fixed , the restriction of on is an injective function from to , but then there is an obvious bijective correspondence of and , the composite of which with proves to be finite (Corollary 6.7). Similarly, if is nonempty, then is finite. But if sets can be empty, then, as it was noted by Fran in the comments below, their product may be empty (finite) while one set is empty and the other is infinite: .