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An example of mathematics' explanatory indispensability presented by Baker is the periodic cicada, a type of insect that usually has life cycles of 13 or 17 years. It is hypothesized that this is an evolutionary advantage because 13 and 17 are prime numbers. Because prime numbers have no non-trivial factors, this means it is less likely ...
For example, if one takes the function () that is equal to zero everywhere except at = where () =, then the supremum of the function equals one. However, its essential supremum is zero since (under the Lebesgue measure ) one can ignore what the function does at the single point where f {\displaystyle f} is peculiar.
In logic and mathematics, necessity and sufficiency are terms used to describe a conditional or implicational relationship between two statements. For example, in the conditional statement: "If P then Q", Q is necessary for P, because the truth of Q is guaranteed by the truth of P.
The Quine–Putnam indispensability argument supports the conclusion that mathematical objects exist with the idea that mathematics is indispensable to the best scientific theories. [5] It relies on the view, called confirmational holism , that scientific theories are confirmed as wholes, and that the confirmations of science extend to the ...
[1] The infimum is, in a precise sense, dual to the concept of a supremum. Infima and suprema of real numbers are common special cases that are important in analysis, and especially in Lebesgue integration. However, the general definitions remain valid in the more abstract setting of order theory where arbitrary partially ordered sets are ...
In mathematics and logic, the term "uniqueness" refers to the property of being the one and only object satisfying a certain condition. [1] This sort of quantification is known as uniqueness quantification or unique existential quantification, and is often denoted with the symbols "∃!" [2] or "∃ =1". For example, the formal statement
A predicate is a statement or mathematical assertion that contains variables, sometimes referred to as predicate variables, and may be true or false depending on those variables’ value or values.
In mathematics, an extraneous solution (or spurious solution) is one which emerges from the process of solving a problem but is not a valid solution to it. [1] A missing solution is a valid one which is lost during the solution process.