Peano axioms
For example, the usual first-order Peano axioms do not prove transfinite induction for (or beyond) ε0: while the ordinal ε0 can easily be arithmetically described (it is countable), the Peano axioms are not strong enough to show that it is indeed an ordinal; in fact, transfinite induction on ε0 proves the consistency of Peano's axioms (a theorem by Gentzen), so by Gödel's second incompleteness theorem, Peano's axioms cannot formalize that reasoning. (This is at the basis of the Kirby–Paris theorem on Goodstein sequences.) Since Peano arithmetic "can" prove that any ordinal less than ε0 is well ordered, we say that ε0 measures the proof-theoretic strength of Peano's axioms.