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Description. The simplest and most common form of mathematical induction infers that a statement involving a natural number n (that is, an integer n ≥ 0 or 1) holds for all values of n. The proof consists of two steps: The base case (or initial case ): prove that the statement holds for 0, or 1. The induction step (or inductive step, or step ...
Cantor's diagonal argument (among various similar names [ note 1]) is a mathematical proof that there are infinite sets which cannot be put into one-to-one correspondence with the infinite set of natural numbers – informally, that there are sets which in some sense contain more elements than there are positive integers.
The concept of proof is formalized in the field of mathematical logic. [ 12] A formal proof is written in a formal language instead of natural language. A formal proof is a sequence of formulas in a formal language, starting with an assumption, and with each subsequent formula a logical consequence of the preceding ones.
In abstract algebra and analysis, the Archimedean property, named after the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes of Syracuse, is a property held by some algebraic structures, such as ordered or normed groups, and fields. The property, as typically construed, states that given two positive numbers and , there is an integer such that .
The Peano axioms define the arithmetical properties of natural numbers, usually represented as a set N or The non-logical symbols for the axioms consist of a constant symbol 0 and a unary function symbol S . The first axiom states that the constant 0 is a natural number: 0 is a natural number.
An axiomatic definition of the real numbers consists of defining them as the elements of a complete ordered field. [2] [3] [4] This means the following: The real numbers form a set, commonly denoted , containing two distinguished elements denoted 0 and 1, and on which are defined two binary operations and one binary relation; the operations are called addition and multiplication of real ...
Aleph-one. ℵ 1 is, by definition, the cardinality of the set of all countable ordinal numbers. This set is denoted by ω 1 (or sometimes Ω). The set ω 1 is itself an ordinal number larger than all countable ones, so it is an uncountable set. Therefore, ℵ 1 is distinct from ℵ 0. The definition of ℵ 1 implies (in ZF, Zermelo–Fraenkel ...
A natural number can be used to express the size of a finite set; more precisely, a cardinal number is a measure for the size of a set, which is even suitable for infinite sets. The numbering of cardinals usually begins at zero, to accommodate the empty set. ∅ {\displaystyle \emptyset }