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Recursive Definition
In mathematics and computer science, a recursive definition, or inductive definition, is used to define the elements in a set in terms of other elements in the set ( Aczel 1977:740ff). Some examples of recursively-definable objects include factorials, natural numbers, Fibonacci numbers, and the Cantor ternary set. A recursive definition of a function defines values of the function for some inputs in terms of the values of the same function for other (usually smaller) inputs. For example, the factorial function ''n''! is defined by the rules :0! = 1. :(''n'' + 1)! = (''n'' + 1)·''n''!. This definition is valid for each natural number ''n'', because the recursion eventually reaches the base case of 0. The definition may also be thought of as giving a procedure for computing the value of the function ''n''!, starting from ''n'' = 0 and proceeding onwards with ''n'' = 1, ''n'' = 2, ''n'' = 3 etc. The recursion theorem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Natural Number
In mathematics, the natural numbers are those numbers used for counting (as in "there are ''six'' coins on the table") and ordering (as in "this is the ''third'' largest city in the country"). Numbers used for counting are called ''Cardinal number, cardinal numbers'', and numbers used for ordering are called ''Ordinal number, ordinal numbers''. Natural numbers are sometimes used as labels, known as ''nominal numbers'', having none of the properties of numbers in a mathematical sense (e.g. sports Number (sports), jersey numbers). Some definitions, including the standard ISO/IEC 80000, ISO 80000-2, begin the natural numbers with , corresponding to the non-negative integers , whereas others start with , corresponding to the positive integers Texts that exclude zero from the natural numbers sometimes refer to the natural numbers together with zero as the whole numbers, while in other writings, that term is used instead for the integers (including negative integers). The natural ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1 (number)
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. In conventions of sign where zero is considered neither positive nor negative, 1 is the first and smallest positive integer. It is also sometimes considered the first of the infinite sequence of natural numbers, followed by 2, although by other definitions 1 is the second natural number, following 0. The fundamental mathematical property of 1 is to be a multiplicative identity, meaning that any number multiplied by 1 equals the same number. Most if not all properties of 1 can be deduced from this. In advanced mathematics, a multiplicative identity is often denoted 1, even if it is not a number. 1 is by convention not considered a prime number; this was not universally accepted until the mid-20th century. Additionally, 1 is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prime Number
A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways of writing it as a product, or , involve 5 itself. However, 4 is composite because it is a product (2 × 2) in which both numbers are smaller than 4. Primes are central in number theory because of the fundamental theorem of arithmetic: every natural number greater than 1 is either a prime itself or can be factorized as a product of primes that is unique up to their order. The property of being prime is called primality. A simple but slow method of checking the primality of a given number n, called trial division, tests whether n is a multiple of any integer between 2 and \sqrt. Faster algorithms include the Miller–Rabin primality test, which is fast but has a small chance of error, and the AKS primality test, which always pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Binomial Coefficients
In mathematics, the binomial coefficients are the positive integers that occur as coefficients in the binomial theorem. Commonly, a binomial coefficient is indexed by a pair of integers and is written \tbinom. It is the coefficient of the term in the polynomial expansion of the binomial power ; this coefficient can be computed by the multiplicative formula :\binom nk = \frac, which using factorial notation can be compactly expressed as :\binom = \frac. For example, the fourth power of is :\begin (1 + x)^4 &= \tbinom x^0 + \tbinom x^1 + \tbinom x^2 + \tbinom x^3 + \tbinom x^4 \\ &= 1 + 4x + 6 x^2 + 4x^3 + x^4, \end and the binomial coefficient \tbinom =\tfrac = \tfrac = 6 is the coefficient of the term. Arranging the numbers \tbinom, \tbinom, \ldots, \tbinom in successive rows for n=0,1,2,\ldots gives a triangular array called Pascal's triangle, satisfying the recurrence relation :\binom = \binom + \binom. The binomial coefficients occur in many areas of mathematics, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Exponentiation
Exponentiation is a mathematical operation, written as , involving two numbers, the '' base'' and the ''exponent'' or ''power'' , and pronounced as " (raised) to the (power of) ". When is a positive integer, exponentiation corresponds to repeated multiplication of the base: that is, is the product of multiplying bases: b^n = \underbrace_. The exponent is usually shown as a superscript to the right of the base. In that case, is called "''b'' raised to the ''n''th power", "''b'' (raised) to the power of ''n''", "the ''n''th power of ''b''", "''b'' to the ''n''th power", or most briefly as "''b'' to the ''n''th". Starting from the basic fact stated above that, for any positive integer n, b^n is n occurrences of b all multiplied by each other, several other properties of exponentiation directly follow. In particular: \begin b^ & = \underbrace_ \\[1ex] & = \underbrace_ \times \underbrace_ \\[1ex] & = b^n \times b^m \end In other words, when multiplying a base raised to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Multiplication
Multiplication (often denoted by the cross symbol , by the mid-line dot operator , by juxtaposition, or, on computers, by an asterisk ) is one of the four elementary mathematical operations of arithmetic, with the other ones being addition, subtraction, and division. The result of a multiplication operation is called a ''product''. The multiplication of whole numbers may be thought of as repeated addition; that is, the multiplication of two numbers is equivalent to adding as many copies of one of them, the ''multiplicand'', as the quantity of the other one, the ''multiplier''. Both numbers can be referred to as ''factors''. :a\times b = \underbrace_ For example, 4 multiplied by 3, often written as 3 \times 4 and spoken as "3 times 4", can be calculated by adding 3 copies of 4 together: :3 \times 4 = 4 + 4 + 4 = 12 Here, 3 (the ''multiplier'') and 4 (the ''multiplicand'') are the ''factors'', and 12 is the ''product''. One of the main properties of multiplication is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Addition
Addition (usually signified by the Plus and minus signs#Plus sign, plus symbol ) is one of the four basic Operation (mathematics), operations of arithmetic, the other three being subtraction, multiplication and Division (mathematics), division. The addition of two Natural number, whole numbers results in the total amount or ''summation, sum'' of those values combined. The example in the adjacent image shows a combination of three apples and two apples, making a total of five apples. This observation is equivalent to the Expression (mathematics), mathematical expression (that is, "3 ''plus'' 2 is Equality (mathematics), equal to 5"). Besides counting items, addition can also be defined and executed without referring to concrete objects, using abstractions called numbers instead, such as integers, real numbers and complex numbers. Addition belongs to arithmetic, a branch of mathematics. In algebra, another area of mathematics, addition can also be performed on abstract objects su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Integer
An integer is the number zero (), a positive natural number (, , , etc.) or a negative integer with a minus sign (−1, −2, −3, etc.). The negative numbers are the additive inverses of the corresponding positive numbers. In the language of mathematics, the set of integers is often denoted by the boldface or blackboard bold \mathbb. The set of natural numbers \mathbb is a subset of \mathbb, which in turn is a subset of the set of all rational numbers \mathbb, itself a subset of the real numbers \mathbb. Like the natural numbers, \mathbb is countably infinite. An integer may be regarded as a real number that can be written without a fractional component. For example, 21, 4, 0, and −2048 are integers, while 9.75, , and are not. The integers form the smallest group and the smallest ring containing the natural numbers. In algebraic number theory, the integers are sometimes qualified as rational integers to distinguish them from the more general algebraic integers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Munkres
James Raymond Munkres (born August 18, 1930) is a Professor Emeritus of mathematics at MIT and the author of several texts in the area of topology, including ''Topology'' (an undergraduate-level text), ''Analysis on Manifolds'', ''Elements of Algebraic Topology'', and ''Elementary Differential Topology''. He is also the author of ''Elementary Linear Algebra''. Munkres completed his undergraduate education at Nebraska Wesleyan UniversityMathematics '' The Tech'', Volume 119, Issue 33, August 27, 1999 and received his from the |
Transfinite Recursion
Transfinite induction is an extension of mathematical induction to well-ordered sets, for example to sets of ordinal numbers or cardinal numbers. Its correctness is a theorem of ZFC. Induction by cases Let P(\alpha) be a property defined for all ordinals \alpha. Suppose that whenever P(\beta) is true for all \beta < \alpha, then is also true. Then transfinite induction tells us that is true for all ordinals. Usually the proof is broken down into three cases: * Zero case: Prove that is true. * Successor case: Prove that for any , follows from (and, if necessary, for all ). * Limit case: Prove that for any |
Well-order
In mathematics, a well-order (or well-ordering or well-order relation) on a set ''S'' is a total order on ''S'' with the property that every non-empty subset of ''S'' has a least element in this ordering. The set ''S'' together with the well-order relation is then called a well-ordered set. In some academic articles and textbooks these terms are instead written as wellorder, wellordered, and wellordering or well order, well ordered, and well ordering. Every non-empty well-ordered set has a least element. Every element ''s'' of a well-ordered set, except a possible greatest element, has a unique successor (next element), namely the least element of the subset of all elements greater than ''s''. There may be elements besides the least element which have no predecessor (see below for an example). A well-ordered set ''S'' contains for every subset ''T'' with an upper bound a least upper bound, namely the least element of the subset of all upper bounds of ''T'' in ''S''. If ≤ is a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
