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Another way to compare sets is by their size. Notice that in the example above, \(A\) has 6 elements and \(B\text{,}\) \(C\text{,}\) and \(D\) all have 3 elements. The size of a set is called the set's cardinality . We would write \(|A| = 6\text{,}\) \(|B| = 3\text{,}\) and so on. For sets that have a finite number of elements, the cardinality of the set is simply the number of elements in the set. Note that the cardinality of \(\{ 1, 2, 3, 2, 1\}\) is 3. We do not count repeats (in fact, \(\{1, 2, 3, 2, 1\}\) is exactly the same set as \(\{1, 2, 3\}\)). There are sets with infinite cardinality, such as \(\N\text{,}\) the set of rational numbers (written \(\mathbb Q\)), the set of even natural numbers, and the set of real numbers (\(\mathbb R\)). It is possible to distinguish between different infinite cardinalities, but that is beyond the scope of this text. For us, a set will either be infinite, or finite; if it is finite, the we can determine its cardinality by counting elements.

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