Archimedean Property

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Theorem (The Archimedean Property). \(\mathbb{N}\) is not bounded from above in \(\mathbb{R}\).


Proof. Let us assume by negation that \(\mathbb{N}\) is bounded from above in \(\mathbb{R}\).

Let us notice \(\mathbb{N}\ne\emptyset\) since \(1\in\mathbb{N}\).

Then by the upper bound theorem, \(\mathbb{N}\) has a supremum.

In particular, according to the characterization of the supremum,

\[\forall\varepsilon>0,\ \exists n\in\mathbb{N},\ s.t.\ \sup\left(\mathbb{N}\right)-\varepsilon<n\le\sup\left(\mathbb{N}\right)\]

Choosing \(\varepsilon=1\) provides such \(n_{0}\in\mathbb{N}\): \[\sup\left(\mathbb{N}\right)-1<n_{0}\le\sup\left(\mathbb{N}\right)\] \[\therefore\sup\left(\mathbb{N}\right)<n_{0}+1\underset{*}{\in}\mathbb{N}\] \((*)\) \(\mathbb{N}\) is closed under addition.

By the supremum definition we get the contradiction \[n_{0}+1\le\sup\left(\mathbb{N}\right)<n_{0}+1\]

Hence \(\mathbb{N}\) is not bounded from above in \(\mathbb{R}\)

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