Product Topology - Axiom of Choice

Axiom of Choice

The axiom of choice is equivalent to the statement that the product of a collection of non-empty sets is non-empty. The proof is easy enough: one needs only to pick an element from each set to find a representative in the product. Conversely, a representative of the product is a set which contains exactly one element from each component.

The axiom of choice occurs again in the study of (topological) product spaces; for example, Tychonoff's theorem on compact sets is a more complex and subtle example of a statement that is equivalent to the axiom of choice.

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