4 ms·
If a writer doesn't know the difference between 'unique' and 'distinct', suspect their mathematics.
by pklausler 10y ago
If a writer doesn't know the difference between 'unique' and 'distinct', suspect their mathematics.
- neeleshs 10y agoWhat's the difference?
- justinpombrio 10y agoA set of things are distinct if they are all different. A thing is unique if it is different from every other thing (in some implicit universe). For example, the names of the three people in my office (Jack, Preston, Justin) are distinct, but my name (Justin) is not unique: many other people share the same name.
- WaxProlix 10y agoIsn't that (distinctness) implicit in the term 'set'? If you had duplicates it'd be some other sort of collection, no?
- justinpombrio 10y agoRr, yes. I should have talked about a set of people with distinct names.
- justicezyx 10y agohttp://math.stackexchange.com/questions/24119/difference-between-pairwise-distinct-and-unique http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/24119/difference-bet... It seems the article's use of unique does not matter much in the context. The level of math explanation seems an over-kill.