TITLE: Why is the cardinality of the codomain of a ring epimorphism at most the cardinality of the domain?
QUESTION [8 upvotes]: According to this page and thence linked text, if $e : R \to S$ is an epimorphism of rings, then the cardinality of $S$ cannot exceed the cardinality of $R$. This is a non-trivial observation because epimorphisms of rings need not be surjective. Is there a "layman's" explanation of this fact, one that does not require me to learn French?

REPLY [2 votes]: An explanation of a layman to a layman.
Let $T={\rm Im}\ e$. Then embedding $T\to S$ is again an epimorphism. With respect to $T$ the ring $S$  behaves like the ring (not necessarily the field!) of fractions (compare $\mathbb{Z}$ and $\mathbb{Q}$), so it has the same cardinality. It is enough? :-) I think it is possible to give a rigorous proof by so-called "zigzag-theorem" from Theory of semigroups.