Proving Addition is Associative

Ben Reiner
November 11, 2016

Exercise Prove that ( + ) + = + ( + ) if , , and are ordinals

Proof: We will prove that ( + ) + = + ( + ) if , , and are ordinals. We will prove this by induction.

Base Case: The base case for this is = 0. If we substitute this is we see, ( + ) + 0 which by the definition of ordinal
addition is equal to + . Now similarly if we substitute = 0 into + ( + ) we get + ( + 0) which by definition can
be rewritten as + . So since ( + ) + = + ( + ) for = 0 the base case holds.

Inductive step: We will induct on and show ( + ) + S() = + ( + S()). Assume the following for all , , and
:
( + ) + = + ( + ) (1)

Now if we can take the successor sides of the equation we have S(( + ) + = S( + ( + )), and we know this is true
because if for all = then S() = S(). So then we can rewrite each side of S(( + ) + = S( + ( + )) to ( + ) + S()
and + S( + )) respectively by the definition of ordinal addition. So then again by the definition of ordinal addition we
can rewrite + S( + )) as + ( + S()). So then we have ( + ) + S() = + ( + S()) as needed.

Lemma 1: We will prove if is a non-zero limit ordinal. Then + is a limit ordinal.

Assume for sake of contradiction that + = S(). Then W+ = + 1. So then since + is isomorphic to + 1,
f : W+ + 1 such that f is a bijection and is order preserving. Consider f 1 () = (1 , 2 ).

Case 1: We will examine the case where 2 = 0.

This then implies that (1 , 2 ) / (0, 1). However f (0, 1) < . Which is a contradiction since f was not well ordering.
Case 2: We will now examine the second case where 2 = 1, so 1 . This then means that (1 , 1) / (1 + 1, 1) but
f (1 + 1, 1) < . So f is not order preserving.
Therefore + 6= S() so + is a limit ordinal.
S S
Lemma 2: We will assume that + = { + | < }. We will prove W+ = {W+ | < .
S l) W+ so l = 0, k , so then (k, l) W+0 if l = 1, k , so then if we take the union of all we see
Fix (k,
k {| < }. So then since ordinals are transitive
S and k , , k . This S then implies (k, l) W+ . If we
take the union of all of these we have (k, l) {W+ | < } . So now fix (k, l) {W+ | < }. If l = 0, k so
(k, l) W+ .
If l = 1, k Sfor some < S
so since ordinals are transitive k , k . Thus (k, l) W+ and finally

+ = W+ = {W+ | < } = { + | < }.

Limit Case: We claim that if isSa non zero limit ordinal < . (+)+ = +( +), then (+)+
S = +( +). Fix
a by our lemmas ( +)+ = {( +)+| < }. Then by our inductive hypothesis, ( +)+ = { +( +)| < }.
Which by our second lemma ( + ) + = + ( + ).