In math, what is the technical term, or real name of an 'empty set'?

Question

This is a bonus question for my math class in college. The professor's hint was 'the answer is approximately 10 letters.'

Answer 1

found one: negligible

... trivial set? ©

Answer 2

Empty set is the usual word, and is used by almost all mathematicians. It's a real name and describes precisely what it is, a set with no elements. What's wrong with such name?

The term void set is also used sometimes, but very rarely. The usual term is really empty said and you find it in almost every book about math, even on advanced level.

By the way NULL SET does NOT mean a set without elements. The common usage for null set is a set whose Lebesgue measure is zero. Null sets don't need to be empty.

Answer 3

"The Null Set" works. The use of "the" is justified by the fact that there is only one empty set, since any two sets with precisely the same elements are the same (that is an axiom of set theory), and since if set A and set B both have no elements, then they have exactly the same elements, hence they are the same set, hence there is only one empty set.

I'm not sure "real name" means anything in mathematics. A name is just a signifier. You could call the empty set "Bob" if you wanted to, and everything would be just fine, provided that everybody agreed that that was its name.

Answer 4

How about NULL SET.

That is approximately 10 and is my recollection of the correct answer.

Answer 5

i thought it might be called the null set, but that's only 7 letters

Answer 6

A "Null Set"

Answer 7

Check out my yahoo handle, Aleph null.

Believe me, NULL is the answer you want.

Answer 8

nothin' here!