Pandora - 11 May 2008 03:05 PM
progressoverpeace - 11 May 2008 02:59 PM
Pandora - 11 May 2008 02:52 PM
What does “distinct” mean in math-speak?
Separate and different. If they didn’t say “distinct” then the set {1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1} would work, giving an answer of 11 (which is incorrect).
PoP, doesn’t the set you displayed also show “distinct” integers as well, by your definition?
They are not distinct, in the mathematical sense, since they are the same number. The first member is the same as the second member (1 = 1), and the third, ...
Not being argumentative here, I’m a (this kind of) math idiot. Answer in words of two syllables, please.
:) No problem, Pandora. This is just a matter of technical jargon.
In math, a list/collection of distinct values (integers, in this case) means that all must be different from each other.
The fact is that mathematical “sets” must always hold distinct values (e.g. {1,4,3,1} is not a mathematical “set”, since the member “1” appears twice - one would also say that it is not a distinct collection of integers), so the original question was redundant in asking for a “set” of “distinct” integers. The questioner was mixing the general English usage of “set”, which people take to mean any old collection of objects, including multiple copies, with the mathematical usage of distinct. That happens very often, though. I made the same mistake in my response above.
