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I presume you meant 2^n (2 raised to the nth power), not 2*n (2 times n). That's answers.com's character set problem again (I trust, giving you the benefit of the doubt).

The answer is that for each of the n elements, it is either in any particular subset or it isn't. Which elements are in and which are not in a subset defines the subset. So for example, if n is 3, say a, b, and c, there are 2 sub-collections of the set of all subsets: those containing a and those not containing a. In each of those sub-collections, there are 2 sub-collections based on whether they contain b, for a total of 4 (2*2) sub-collections. Finally, of each of these 4, there are 2 subsets: those containing c and those not containing c, for a total of 8 (2*2*2 or 2^3) subsets. Got it?

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Q: Why does a set containing n element have 2n subsets?
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Related questions

How many subsets does a set N element have?

A set with N elements has 2N subsets.


What is the number of proper subsets of a given finite set with n element?

2n - 1


How many proper subsets does a set with four elements have?

A set with n elements has 2n subsets. The number of proper subsets is one less, since 2n includes the set itself.


How many subsets are there in a set?

The number of subsets of a given set, including the set itself and the empty set, is 2n. Easiest way to see why: to make a particular subset, for each element in the original set you either chhose it or you don't. There are thus two possibilities for each element, so 2n possibilities for all n elements.


How do you get the number of the subsets in a set?

A finite set with N distinct elements has 2N subsets.


How many subsets does a set of n elements have?

2n. SeeHow_many_subsets_are_there_in_12_elements


How do you determine the list of all the subsets of sets?

If a set has N elements then it has 2N subsets. So you can see that a list of all subsets soon becomes a very big task. For reasonably small values of N, one way to generate all subsets is to list the binary numbers from 0 to 2N. Then, each of these represents a subset of the original set. If the nth digit is 0 then the nth element is not in the set and if the nth digit is 1 then the nth element is in the set. That will generate all the subsets.


How many subsets are there in universal set?

If the universal set contains N elements then it has 2N subsets.


What is the Formula for the number of subsets in a set?

If the set has n elements, the number of subsets (the power set) has 2n members.


What determines the number of subsets in a set?

The number of elements. A set with n elements has 2n subsets; for example, a set with 5 elements has 25 = 32 subsets.


How do you determine the number of subsets in relation to the universal set?

If the universal set, U, has N elements then it has 2N subsets.


What does find the number of subsets mean?

That means, figure out how many different subsets a set has. In general, if a set has n elements, it has 2n different subsets.