info prev up next book cdrom email home

Partition

A partition is a way of writing an Integer $n$ as a sum of Positive Integers without regard to order, possibly subject to one or more additional constraints. Particular types of partition functions include the Partition Function P, giving the number of partitions of a number without regard to order, and Partition Function Q, giving the number of ways of writing the Integer $n$ as a sum of Positive Integers without regard to order with the constraint that all Integers in each sum are distinct.

See also Amenable Number, Durfee Square, Elder's Theorem, Ferrers Diagram, Graphical Partition, Partition Function P, Partition Function Q, Perfect Partition, Plane Partition, Set Partition, Solid Partition, Stanley's Theorem


References

Andrews, G. E. The Theory of Partitions. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Dickson, L. E. ``Partitions.'' Ch. 3 in History of the Theory of Numbers, Vol. 2: Diophantine Analysis. New York: Chelsea, pp. 101-164, 1952.




© 1996-9 Eric W. Weisstein
1999-05-26