Cardinality of Finite Power Set

It is known that in general, the cardinality of a power set is strictly greater than that set. In the case of finite sets, we can provide an explicit formula for the number of elements of the power set.

Theorem

For any finite set S with n elements, the power set of S has 2n elements.

Proof

An element AP(S) is uniquely determined by its members, which we may treat as a boolean condition on each element of S. That is, A can be uniquely described by whether sA or sA for each sS. Given there are two possibilities for each of the n members of S, the power set must contain 2n elements.