Property (mathematics)


In mathematics, a property is any characteristic that applies to a given set. Rigorously, a property p defined for all elements of a set X is usually defined as a function p: X → , that is true whenever the property holds; or equivalently, as the subset of X for which p holds; i.e. the set ; p is its indicator function. However, it may be objected that the rigorous definition defines merely the extension of a property, and says nothing about what causes the property to hold for exactly those values.
Examples of properties include the commutative property of real and complex numbers and the distributive property.