- Classification problem
In
science ormathematics , a classification problem for objects in a particular domain is the problem of separating these objects into smaller classes, and giving criteria for determining whether a particular object in the domain is in a particular class or not.One of the most famous attempts at classification in
biology isCarolus Linnaeus 's famous classification of living things by class, order,genus , andspecies . An example in physics is the classification of the physical world intomatter andenergy , or more precisely, the classification of elementary particles intofermion s andboson s and the further classification of these particles usingquantum number s. In mathematics, one successful solution to a classification problem is the classification ofsurface s: every closed connected surface is a connected sum ofsphere s, tori, and projective planes; an invariant called thegenus can be used to determine which class a given surface lies in. Another example, more closely resembling the biological situation, is theclassification of finite simple groups , in which there are many large classes, but also a number of (in fact 26) exceptions.ee also
*
Class (philosophy)
*Classification theorem (in mathematics)
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.