infinite descent
infinite descent noun: a method of proof by contradiction that is used to prove that a statement must be false for all positive integers. By showing that if it is true for one integer, it must be true for a smaller integer, an infinite number of solutions are found and a contradiction is eventually reached.
Noun
infinite descent (uncountable)
- A method of proof by contradiction that is used to prove that a statement must be false for all positive integers. By showing that if it is true for one integer, it must be true for a smaller integer, an infinite number of solutions are found and a contradiction is eventually reached.
Questions about infinite descent
- What does infinite descent mean?
- Infinite descent means a method of proof by contradiction that is used to prove that a statement must be false for all positive integers. By showing that if it is true for one integer, it must be true for a smaller integer, an infinite number of solutions are found and a contradiction is eventually reached.
- What part of speech is infinite descent?
- Infinite descent is a noun.
Words near infinite descent in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: infinite descent (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “infinite descent.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/infinite_descent. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
