Jump to content

Corollary

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Rl (talk | contribs) at 07:04, 19 January 2009 (rv/v to last version by 204.76.128.217). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

A corollary is a statement which follows readily from a previously proven statement. In mathematics a corollary typically follows a theorem. The use of the term corollary, rather than proposition or theorem, is intrinsically subjective. Proposition B is a corollary of proposition A if B can readily be deduced from A, but the meaning of readily varies depending upon the author and context. The importance of the corollary is often considered secondary to that of the initial theorem; B is unlikely to be termed a corollary if its mathematical consequences are as significant as those of A. Sometimes a corollary has a proof that explains the derivation; sometimes the derivation is considered to be self-evident.

See also