< mathematics > A finite von Neumann ordinal .
The von Neumann integer N is a finite set with N elements which are the von Neumann integers 0 to N-1. Thus
0 = = 1 = 0 = { } 2 = 0, 1 = { , { }} 3 = 0, 1, 2 = { , { }, { , { }}} ...
The set of von Neumann integers is infinite , even though each of its elements is finite.
[Origin of name?]
(1995-03-30)