von Neumann integer

<mathematics>

A finite von Neumann ordinal.

The von Neumann integer N is a finite set with N elements which are the von Neumann integers 0 to N-1. Thus 

 0 = {}	 = {}
 1 = {0}	 = {{}}
 2 = {0, 1}	= {{}, {{}}}
 3 = {0, 1, 2}	= {{}, {{}}, {{}, {{}}}}
 ...
The set of von Neumann integers is infinite, even though each of its elements is finite.

[Origin of name?]

Last updated: 1995-03-30

Nearby terms:

von Neumann architecture ♦ von Neumann integer ♦ von Neumann, John

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