Injective function: Difference between revisions

From Citizendium
Jump to navigation Jump to search
imported>Richard Pinch
(new entry, just a stub)
 
imported>Richard Pinch
(added example class of strictly montonic functions)
Line 2: Line 2:


An injective function ''f'' has a well-defined partial inverse <math>f^{-1}</math>.  If ''y'' is an element of the image set of ''f'', then there is at least one input ''x'' such that <math>f(x) = y</math>.  If ''f'' is injective then this ''x'' is unique and we can define <math>f^{-1}(y)</math> to be this unique value.  We have <math>f^{-1}(f(x)) = x</math> for all ''x'' in the domain.
An injective function ''f'' has a well-defined partial inverse <math>f^{-1}</math>.  If ''y'' is an element of the image set of ''f'', then there is at least one input ''x'' such that <math>f(x) = y</math>.  If ''f'' is injective then this ''x'' is unique and we can define <math>f^{-1}(y)</math> to be this unique value.  We have <math>f^{-1}(f(x)) = x</math> for all ''x'' in the domain.
A strictly [[monotonic function]] is injective, since in this case <math>x_1 < x_2</math> implies that <math>f(x_1) < f(x_2)</math>.


==See also==
==See also==
* [[Bijective function]]
* [[Bijective function]]
* [[Surjective function]]
* [[Surjective function]]

Revision as of 15:40, 12 November 2008

In mathematics, an injective function or one-to-one function or injection is a function which has different output values on different input values: f is injective if implies that .

An injective function f has a well-defined partial inverse . If y is an element of the image set of f, then there is at least one input x such that . If f is injective then this x is unique and we can define to be this unique value. We have for all x in the domain.

A strictly monotonic function is injective, since in this case implies that .

See also