If not all positions of one well-ordering corresponded to initial positions in the other, then the set of non-corresponding positions would be non-empty for each well-ordered set.

Cantor noted that for any two well-ordered sets, the initial positions in one ordering (the first, the second, the third, etc.) correspond to the initial positions in the other, the way that they do for finite sets. In fact, he showed that all of the positions of one well-ordering must correspond to initial positions in the other. (If this weren’t true, then the set of positions in one that don’t correspond to positions in the other would be non-empty for each set, and the first elements of thes