The Paradox Portal
Mathematical

Galileo's Paradox

There are as many perfect squares as there are natural numbers

Overview

An early observation about infinity showing that infinite sets can be placed in one-to-one correspondence with proper subsets of themselves.

Every natural number can be paired with its square: 1↔1, 2↔4, 3↔9, etc. So there are as many squares as natural numbers. But squares are a subset of natural numbers, so there should be fewer. Which is it?

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