Are There Redundancies in the Terminology of Components in Mathematics?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the terminology used in mathematics regarding components, particularly in the context of topology. Participants explore whether terms like "closed connected component" or "open disjoint component" are redundant or serve a specific purpose in communication.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant asserts that a component must be closed, connected, open, and disjoint, questioning the redundancy of terms like "closed connected component."
  • Another participant counters that components are not necessarily open, citing singletons in the rational numbers as an example, and suggests that the term "closed connected component" may be used to emphasize closure.
  • A different participant notes the prevalence of the term "connected component" over just "component," questioning the reasoning behind this preference.
  • Another participant introduces the concept of quasicomponents, suggesting that the term "connected component" may be used to avoid confusion with other types of components.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the necessity and clarity of terminology related to components, indicating that multiple competing perspectives remain without a consensus on whether the terms are redundant.

Contextual Notes

Some assumptions about the definitions of components and their properties may not be fully articulated, leading to potential misunderstandings about the terminology used.

jessicaw
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conponent(maximal connected set) must be closed, connected, open, disjoint. This is a fact.
But why people still say somthing redundant like "closed connected component", "open disjoint component", "connected disjoint component"? Is it really redundant or my concept not clear?
 
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Firstly, a component is not necessairily open. Take, for example, the components in Q, these are the singletons and are not open.

Why people say closed connected component? Depends of the situation. But my guess is that the want to emphasize that they're closed. Can you give an example on when they use it?
 
but why people always say"connected component" but not just "component"? Nearly every book or website use the former term.
 
There are other forms of components. We also have the quasicomponents (these are the intersection of all clopen sets containing a point). I guess people say "connected component" because they don't want confusion with other kinds of components...
 

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