In mathematics, Property B is a certain set theoretic property. Formally, given a finite set X, a collection C of subsets of X, all of size n, has Property B if we can partition X into two disjoint subsets Y and Z such that every set in C meets both Y and Z. The smallest number of sets in a collection of sets of size n such that C does not have Property B is denoted by m(n).
The property gets its name from mathematician Felix Bernstein, who first introduced the property in 1908.
Read more about Property B: Values of m(n), Asymptotics of m(n)
Famous quotes containing the word property:
“By avarice and selfishness, and a groveling habit, from which none of us is free, of regarding the soil as property, or the means of acquiring property chiefly, the landscape is deformed, husbandry is degraded with us, and the farmer leads the meanest of lives. He knows Nature but as a robber.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)