The "Continuum Hypothesis" states that the cardinality
of the set of real numbers is two to the power of the
cardinality of the set of integers.
The cardinal number for a set is the size of the set.
There are infinitely many integers, denoted by Ω omega.
There are infinitely many reals, denoted by &Aleph; Aleph Null.
The following is called a "proof by picture" that is typically
not accepted by strict mathematicians.
We will write the real numbers from zero to about one,
as binary fractions. This is a subset of the real numbers
because each fraction may have every integer as its
integer part. We do not even bother to count that when
determining the cardinality of the real numbers.
We use a one-to-many mapping from the integers
to the real fractions. The integer is at the top and
the real fraction runs vertically as binary.
At each step we take each real and make two reals by
appending a zero and one. The number of bits in the
fraction is the mapping from the integer.
Step 1: integer 1 there are 2^1 reals with 1 fractional bit
real 0.0
0.1
Step 2: integer 2 there are 2^2 reals with 2 fractional bits
real 0.00
0.01
0.10
0.11
Step 3: integer 3 there are 2^3 reals with 3 fractional bits
real 0.000
0.001
0.010
0.011
0.100
0.101
0.110
0.111
Step 4: integer 4 there are 2^4 reals with 4 fractional bits
real 0.0000
0.0001
0.0010
0.0011
0.0100
0.0101
0.0110
0.0111
0.1000
0.1001
0.1010
0.1011
0.1100
0.1101
0.1110
0.1111
The steps continue for all of the integers.
Thus: there are 2^n real fractions in the range zero to one
for n integers.
Thus: there are two to the power Omega real fractions.
With a little hand waving, proving by picture that:
There are 2^Ω real numbers, Aleph Null, the cardinality of
the real numbers.
The hand waving is that n 2^n approaches 2^n as
n approaches infinity.
qed.