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Let $A$ be a set of cardinality $n$ and let $A_1,...,A_{n+1}$ be subsets of $A$. Prove that there are disjoint nonempty $I,J\subset\{1,...,n+1\}$ satisfying $$\bigcup_{i\in I}A_i=\bigcup_{j\in J}A_j.$$

I've been stuck on this problem for awhile - not quite sure how to start. Thus far in the course we've been studying vector spaces, subspaces, bases, etc.

Edit: I noticed the question has been re-tagged as "combinatorics", but it should be noted I have never taken a course in combinatorics (this question is from an algebra course) and so I have no familiarity with many of its concepts.

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  • $\begingroup$ I'm not sure if it is true. Let's set $n = 2$, $A = \{1, 2, 3\}$ and $A_k = \{k\}$ for $k \in \{1,2,3\}$. Can you find disjoint and nonempty $I$ and $J$? $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 17, 2015 at 21:56
  • $\begingroup$ @LeonAragones: your set $A$ does not have $n=2$ elements. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 17, 2015 at 21:58
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    $\begingroup$ Oh, I see: it is time to go to bed. A hint for the OP: use the pigeonhole principle. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 17, 2015 at 22:00
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    $\begingroup$ Count amount of choices for $I$ and amount of options for $\bigcup_{i\in I} A_i$. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 17, 2015 at 22:00
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    $\begingroup$ You have to be a little more careful than this. While there are $2^{n+1}$ choices for $I$ and only $2^n$ choices for the union, that only tells you there must be lots of pairs $I$ and $J$ which give the same union -- but it doesn't guarantee that $I$ and $J$ will be disjoint. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 18, 2015 at 0:22

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Since $I$ and $J$ are constrained to be nonempty, the assertion may in fact be false if one of the $A_i$'s is empty (for example, $n=2$, $A_1=\{1\}$, $A_2=\{2\}$, $A_3=\emptyset$.) On the other hand, if at least two $A_i$'s are empty (say $A_i$ and $A_j$), we win by choosing $I=\{i\}$ and $J=\{j\}$. So we will assume henceforth that all of the $A_i$'s are nonempty, and we prove the result under this assumption.

Write down the "incidence matrix" $M$, which has $n+1$ rows, corresponding to the $A_i$'s, and $n$ columns, corresponding to the elements of the set $A$, as follows: in the row corresponding to the set $A_i$, put a $1$ in each column corresponding to an element of $A_i$, and zeros in the remaining columns. As there are more rows than columns, the rows must be linearly dependent, so there's a row vector ${\vec c}=(c_1,\ldots,c_{n+1})$ such that ${\vec c}\, M=0$, with the $c_i$'s not all zero.

Define $I=\{ i\mid c_i>0\}$ and $J=\{j\mid c_j<0\}$. If ${\vec a_i}$ denotes the row vector corresponding to the set $A_i$, we then have $$\sum_{i\in I}c_i {\vec a_i}=\sum_{j\in J}|c_j| {\vec a_j}.$$ Call this sum $\vec u$, and note that all coefficients in the sum are positive. Since none of the $A_i$'s are empty, $\vec u$ is a nonzero vector with nonnegative coordinates, so both $I$ and $J$ are nonempty (and they're clearly disjoint.)

A coordinate in the left-hand sum is nonzero precisely when it is nonzero in some $\vec a_i$ with $i\in I$, so the nonzero coordinates of $\vec u$ correspond precisely to the elements of $\cup_{i\in I}A_i$. But the same is true on the right-hand side, so we conclude that $\cup_{i\in I}A_i = \cup_{j\in J}A_j.$

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