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In logic a counterexample disproves the generalization, and does so rigorously in the fields of mathematics and philosophy. [1] For example, the fact that "student John Smith is not lazy" is a counterexample to the generalization "students are lazy", and both a counterexample to, and disproof of, the universal quantification "all students are ...
The assumption that if there is a counterexample, there is a minimal counterexample, is based on a well-ordering of some kind. The usual ordering on the natural numbers is clearly possible, by the most usual formulation of mathematical induction; but the scope of the method can include well-ordered induction of any kind.
One of many examples from algebraic geometry in the first half of the 20th century: Severi (1946) claimed that a degree-n surface in 3-dimensional projective space has at most (n+2 3 )−4 nodes, B. Segre pointed out that this was wrong; for example, for degree 6 the maximum number of nodes is 65, achieved by the Barth sextic , which is more ...
One famous counterexample in topology is the Alexander horned sphere, showing that topologically embedding the sphere S 2 in R 3 may fail to separate the space cleanly. As a counterexample, it motivated mathematicians to define the tameness property, which suppresses the kind of wild behavior exhibited by the horned sphere, wild knot , and ...
The Conway base 13 function is a function created by British mathematician John H. Conway as a counterexample to the converse of the intermediate value theorem.In other words, it is a function that satisfies a particular intermediate-value property — on any interval (,), the function takes every value between () and () — but is not continuous.
Substituting v 1 into the identity and removing common factors gives the numerical example cited above. In 1988, Roger Frye found the smallest possible counterexample + + = for k = 4 by a direct computer search using techniques suggested by Elkies. This solution is the only one with values of the variables below 1,000,000.
For instance, an example of a first-countable space which is not second-countable is counterexample #3, the discrete topology on an uncountable set. This particular counterexample shows that second-countability does not follow from first-countability. Several other "Counterexamples in ..." books and papers have followed, with similar motivations.
In mathematics, Hilbert's fourteenth problem, that is, number 14 of Hilbert's problems proposed in 1900, asks whether certain algebras are finitely generated.. The setting is as follows: Assume that k is a field and let K be a subfield of the field of rational functions in n variables,