Without loss of generality (abbreviated to WLOG; less commonly stated as without any loss of generality or with no loss of generality) is a frequently used expression in mathematics. The term is used before an assumption in a proof which narrows the premise to some special case; it is implied that the proof for that case can be easily applied to all others, or that all other cases are equivalent. Thus, given a proof of the conclusion in the special case, it is trivial to adapt it to prove the conclusion in all other cases.
This often requires the presence of symmetry. For example, in proving (i.e., that some property holds for any two real numbers and ), if we wish to assume "without loss of generality" that, then it is required that be symmetrical in and, namely that is equivalent to . There is then no loss of generality in assuming, since a proof for that case can trivially be adapted for the other case by interchanging and (leading to the conclusion, which is known to be equivalent to, the desired conclusion.)
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Famous quotes containing the words loss and/or generality:
“One writes of scars healed, a loose parallel to the pathology of the skin, but there is no such thing in the life of an individual. There are open wounds, shrunk sometimes to the size of a pin-prick but wounds still. The marks of suffering are more comparable to the loss of a finger, or the sight of an eye. We may not miss them, either, for one minute in a year, but if we should there is nothing to be done about it.”
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—Aristotle (384–322 B.C.)