Countable Set - Definition

Definition

A set S is called countable if there exists an injective function f from S to the natural numbers

If f is also surjective and therefore bijective (since f is already defined to be injective), then S is called countably infinite.

As noted above, this terminology is not universal: Some authors use countable to mean what is here called "countably infinite," and to not include finite sets.

For alternative (equivalent) formulations of the definition in terms of a bijective function or a surjective function, see the section Formal definition and properties below.

Read more about this topic:  Countable Set

Famous quotes containing the word definition:

    I’m beginning to think that the proper definition of “Man” is “an animal that writes letters.”
    Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)

    Scientific method is the way to truth, but it affords, even in
    principle, no unique definition of truth. Any so-called pragmatic
    definition of truth is doomed to failure equally.
    Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)

    The very definition of the real becomes: that of which it is possible to give an equivalent reproduction.... The real is not only what can be reproduced, but that which is always already reproduced. The hyperreal.
    Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)