Proof of The Product of Two Sums over Finite Index Sets is a Sum over the Cartesian Product
lemmalem:finite-set-indexed-sum-product-2026aWrite for the map . Since is nonempty and finite it has elements for some natural number , by Number of Elements of a Set. We argue by induction on , using Principle of Induction for the Natural Numbers, on the statement : for every set with elements, every nonempty finite set and all maps and , the asserted identity holds.
Base case . Let be a bijection and put ; since by claim 2 of Basic Properties of Initial Segments of the Natural Numbers, every element of equals , so . By claim 1 of Peeling, Splitting, and Interchange for Sums over a Finite Index Set,
By claim 1 of Finiteness of Cartesian Products, Tuple Sets, and Permutation Sets the map with is a bijection onto . Applying claim 2 of Properties of a Sum over a Finite Index Set to and , and then claim 4 of that lemma,
where the middle equality uses that the components of are and , by Characteristic Property of the Ordered Pair. This is the asserted identity.
Induction step. Assume and let have elements, where is the successor map of Natural Numbers. By claim 2 of Peeling an Element off a Finite Set, and Unions of Finite Sets there are a subset with elements and an element with such that . By claim 2 of Peeling, Splitting, and Interchange for Sums over a Finite Index Set,
so by the distributive law of the field ,
The hypothesis , applied to and the restriction of to , identifies the first summand with . The set has element by claim 2 of Basic Properties of Finite Sets, so the base case, applied to and the restriction of to , identifies the second summand with .
The sets and are nonempty subsets of ; they are disjoint, because the first component of an element of lies in while that of an element of is ; and their union is , because every has . Hence claim 3 of Peeling, Splitting, and Interchange for Sums over a Finite Index Set gives
which completes the induction step and the proof.
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Prerequisites
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