Function Spaces
The set of all functions from a set X to a set Y is denoted by X → Y, by, or by YX. The latter notation is motivated by the fact that, when X and Y are finite and of size |X| and |Y|, then the number of functions X → Y is |YX| = |Y||X|. This is an example of the convention from enumerative combinatorics that provides notations for sets based on their cardinalities. If X is infinite and there is more than one element in Y then there are uncountably many functions from X to Y, though only countably many of them can be expressed with a formula or algorithm.
Read more about this topic: Function (mathematics)
Famous quotes containing the words function and/or spaces:
“My function in life is not to be a politician in Parliament: it is to get something done.”
—Bernadette Devlin (b. 1947)
“When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, the little space which I fill and even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces of which I am ignorant and which know me not, I am frightened and am astonished at being here rather than there. For there is no reason why here rather than there, why now rather than then.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)