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Discrete mathematics is the study of mathematical structures that can be considered "discrete" (in a way analogous to discrete variables, having a bijection with the set of natural numbers) rather than "continuous" (analogously to continuous functions).
Discrete mathematics is the study of mathematical structures that are fundamentally discrete rather than continuous.In contrast to real numbers that have the property of varying "smoothly", the objects studied in discrete mathematics – such as integers, graphs, and statements in logic [1] – do not vary smoothly in this way, but have distinct, separated values. [2]
Discrete mathematics, also called finite mathematics, is the study of mathematical structures that are fundamentally discrete, in the sense of not supporting or requiring the notion of continuity. Most, if not all, of the objects studied in finite mathematics are countable sets , such as integers , finite graphs , and formal languages .
The four color theorem and optimal sphere packing were two major problems of discrete mathematics solved in the second half of the 20th century. [44] The P versus NP problem, which remains open to this day, is also important for discrete mathematics, since its solution would potentially impact a large number of computationally difficult ...
Any class of objects defines a discrete category when augmented with identity maps. Any subcategory of a discrete category is discrete. Also, a category is discrete if and only if all of its subcategories are full. The limit of any functor from a discrete category into another category is called a product, while the colimit is called a coproduct.
Dichotomization is the special case of discretization in which the number of discrete classes is 2, which can approximate a continuous variable as a binary variable (creating a dichotomy for modeling purposes, as in binary classification). Discretization is also related to discrete mathematics, and is an important component of granular computing.
The discharging method is a technique used to prove lemmas in structural graph theory. [1] Discharging is most well known for its central role in the proof of the four color theorem.
In topology, a discrete space is a particularly simple example of a topological space or similar structure, one in which the points form a discontinuous sequence, meaning they are isolated from each other in a certain sense. The discrete topology is the finest topology that can be given on a set.