canonical


A mathematical object is said to be canonical if it arises in a natural way without introducing any additional objects.

Examples

  1. 1.

    Suppose A×B is the Cartesian productMathworldPlanetmath of sets A,B. Then A×B has two A×BA and A×BB defined in a natural way. Of course, if we assume more structureMathworldPlanetmath of A,B there are also other projections.

  2. 2.

    http://planetmath.org/CanonicalProjectioncanonical projection (in group theory)

Notes

For a discussion of the theological use of canonical, see [1].

References

  • 1 Wikipedia, article on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonicalcanonical.
Title canonical
Canonical name Canonical
Date of creation 2013-03-22 14:44:32
Last modified on 2013-03-22 14:44:32
Owner mathcam (2727)
Last modified by mathcam (2727)
Numerical id 6
Author mathcam (2727)
Entry type Definition
Classification msc 00A20
Related topic CanonicalFormOfElementOfNumberField