Set theory (nonfiction)

Venn diagram (nonfiction) showing the intersection of sets A and B.

Set theory is the branch of mathematics that studies sets, which informally are collections of mathematical objects.

Description

Although any type of object can be collected into a set, set theory is applied most often to objects that are relevant to mathematics.

The language of set theory can be used in the definitions of nearly all mathematical objects.

History

Georg Cantor (1894).

The modern study of set theory was initiated by Georg Cantor and Richard Dedekind in the 1870s.

After the discovery of paradoxes in naive set theory, numerous axiom systems were proposed in the early twentieth century, of which the Zermelo–Fraenkel axioms, with the axiom of choice, are the best-known.

Beyond its foundational role, set theory is a branch of mathematics in its own right, with an active research community.

Contemporary research into set theory includes a diverse collection of topics, ranging from the structure of the real number line to the study of the consistency of large cardinals.

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Georg Cantor (nonfiction)
• Mathematician (nonfiction)
• Mathematics (nonfiction)

Fiction cross-reference

• 

  John Venn computing one of his famed diagrams.

• 

  Writer/sorceror Roger Zelazny (working with artist William Blake) conjures a Venn diagram against an unnamed demon.

• Essential proteins in yeast complexes.png

  Diagram of plan by the Elder Gods to defile and consume all life.

• John Venn
• Mathematician
• Mathematics

External links

• Set theory @ Wikipedia